Knightfall
by Thervan
Summary: A side story of what the characters from my first fanfic did during the time in between Volumes 3 and 4, due to a mistake I made while wrting I've decided to get around to separating the two stories and at some point fix some other things people have pointed out.
1. Chapter 1

_Vanir Argent_

Once again i found myself standing in the warehouse district of a city, in the middle of a massive storm, the only differences being that i was standing in a sewage pipe, and Mithril was with me.

We had left the island of Patch a few days after i woke up,Lirril and Talia remained behind in order to recover with Rennic and Torque, though they both said they would join us in Haven when they could. "Vanir, it's time." Mithril said to me as her eyes returned to their normal color, they had been a cloudy white while she used her semblance to see the locations of our targets.

"How many Knights are there?" I asked her as i moved up to the grate above us and began to cut it with the Hades, Niren had given it an upgrade so that i could control how much energy is released.

"At least twenty on the first floor, my vision started to fade near the roof." Mithril said while shaking her head back and forth, if she overused her semblance it gave her massive headaches.

"Niren, we have at least twenty contacts on the first floor, but no clue how many there are on the roof." I said while pressing down the radio in my ear. After a few moments of crackling Niren finally responded. " _Copy, Nexus is currently scanning the area, we need some more time to deal with perimeter sentries._ " I finished cutting the edges of the grate and slowly pulled it down into the pipe before responding. "Copy, moving up into the warehouse now." I climbed up into the warehouse and held my right arm down for Mithril.

"Thanks." Mithril whispered after we both stood up and unsheathed our weapons. "No problem, you're fine with killing these guys?" I asked as i sniffed the air, the room we entered was dark and Mithril still needed time before she used her semblance again, the smell of sewage was still too strong for me to rely on my nose to track a target, so i started to focus my hearing to find the closest source of noise.

"Three Knights just down the hall, playing cards." I said after a moment of listening. "Right, how do you wanna do this?" Mithril asked me as she moved towards the door.

"Rush them." I said, the mission was extermination, stealth wasn't required. I opened the door and began to sprint down the hall, the three Knights at the other end were caught off guard and fumbled for their weapons, before they could even aim i had already cut down the nearest one and Mithril was moving to deal with the others, her twinblade was a flash of steel as she quickly slit their throats.

"Nice." I said as i swung my blade to get the blood off it. "Good place for date." Mithril said as we continued down the hall, as we stood at the corner of the hall we were in listening for any more Knights i heard several muffled shots from outside, Niren had begun to pick off targets. "We need to speed this up." Mithril said as her eyes once again turned cloudy.

I stood guard for another fives minutes as she looked around before she said "The rest of them are just beyond that door there, looks like we managed to spook them." I nodded before moving down the hall, the Knights were either scared shitless, or were planning a desperate last stand, either way they were about to die.

"Hold on." I whispered as we both reached the door leading into the warehouse floor, this was reminding me of the night Niren and I had been arrested by the Vale police. I put my ear next to the door in order to listen to any conversation that was going on. " _It's the Maleficar isn't it?_ " A voice asked with fear. " _It has to be, and now that the traitor is working with them we're screwed._ " Another voice said in anger

The Knights didn't take kindly to Mordred betraying them, when he announced his plan to overthrow Uther and return the Knights to a more noble path, they sent forces after him, only to be crushed in a series of small skirmishes on the fringes of civilization, a week after that what remained of the Maleficar began to make strikes at drydocks belonging to the Knights, these events managed to put them at a major disadvantage.

"Back up from the door." I said to Mithril while slowly building up a charge inside of _Hades_ , the door was made of metal and was most likely thick enough to stop high caliber bullets, nothing to that massive amounts of heat couldn't fix though.

"Wait do you hear that?" One of the knights asked after a loud humming began to emanate from _Hades_. I raised the robotic arm and prepared to fire, the entire palm slowly expanded from the glowing red orb of energy that had built up in the center. "This is going to be interesting." I said to myself as i let the energy build up a little bit more, if the first blast could clear away a few Knight's it would be worth letting them realize we were right outside the door.

"Fire it already." Mithril said when the air was filled with static electricity, i had to agree that now would be a good time to fire the energy. "Firing." I said before letting the massive amount of energy surge out of my palm and towards the door, apparently i charged it for too long since the hole was larger than the door was a moment ago and the beam tore through the wall on the other side of the room.

"Damn." I said as i received multiple shocks from the discharge, leftover energy was moving through the grafting and into my torso, giving me a nasty shock every few seconds. "Can you still fight? Looks like you missed some guys." Mithril said with a little bit of worry in her voice.

"Let him in Niren." I said between ragged breaths. After a moment the sounds of screams echoed from outside and Nexus dropped down just outside the hole in the far wall, Kyofu at the ready with a red blade sizzling in the rain. "You know the police are going to be after us now right?" He asked me from across the room, the last five Knights looking back and forth with confusion.

 _Niren Argent_

I finished surveying the area around our target, it was an old warehouse in the dock district of Havens capital city, and just like two years ago a large storm had moved in to provide us cover to carry out our objective. Unlike two years ago however Vanir and I had backup, backup being Nexus and Mithril as well as at least a dozen of Mordred's forces waiting to move in and salvage equipment from the warehouse.

" _Niren, we have at least twenty contacts on the first floor, but no clue how many there are on the roof._ " Vanirs voice crackled over the radio in my ear, i pressed the earpiece down and said "Copy, Nexus is currently scanning the area, we need some more time to deal with perimeter sentries." I could only see so far with my thermal scope and Nexus would be able to adapt his eyes to see better.

"You can start clearing a way for me, i've marked the path i'm taking so just clear out targets from there." He said before grabbing his weapon and moving to the stairwell. "Copy." I said before i started to fire my weapon at several Knights who were too close to the building for my liking.

The storm did wonders for masking the sound of my bullets and the flash from my muzzle, eventually i fell into a trance like state as i pulled the trigger several times then reloaded, only to repeat the process.

" _Niren, i'm heading up to the warehouse roof now._ " Nexuses voice crackled into my ear, drawing me out of my trance as i picked off my last target and slowly sat up before answering "Go for it,i can keep an eye out for any Bullheads or reinforcements." I said while cracking my neck, laying down for at least twenty minutes and firing a rifle caused it to stiffen up a fact that the other Maleficar enjoyed teasing me about.

As i settled back onto my stomach to continue scanning the dockyards i soon found myself counting the time between each roll of thunder, no reinforcements had arrived and the only thing of interest that had happened was the beam of red energy that tore through the warehouse and several other buildings beyond it, Vanir had finally tested out the overclock on the _Hades_.

"So was that blast just you being curious or did the fuckers actually have something that was a threat?" I asked Vanir when i saw him walk out into the rain and tap something on his scroll.

" _If you count a door and at least ten Knights a threat, then yes._ " Vanir replied sourly as the sound of engines began to fill the air. "Just remember to come pick me up." I said as i began to pick up the spent magazines my sniping had left on the ground. "Yeah yeah." Vanir said with a resigned tone in his voice, i continued to watch the people i had come to call my family until the Bullhead Mordred lent us touched down in the middle of the street.

I stood up when i saw the VITOL moving towards my position and lept across the short gap between it and the building, accepting Vanir's metal grip when i slipped slightly. "Getting too old to jump across a gap anymore?" He asked me with a grin on his face. "Not as much as you are you bleeding homicidal maniac." I said after lightly hitting his shoulder. Mithril and Nexus both laughed at our discussion.

"The Maleficar will have some food for us right?" Mithril asked after her stomach growled loudly. "They should, after all the tavern belongs to them." I said after yawning, not only would we get a warm meal, but a hot shower as well. "Not to mention warm beds." Vanir said after yawning as well, the last few weeks had been hell for us after the battle at Beacon the knights were obviously reluctant to give any ground.

"How much longer do we have to fight these assholes?" Nexus asked while leaning back in the seat he was in. "Until we can draw out Uther, after that it all depends on if we can kill him." I said while popping my neck, it was still stiff. "Let's just get some rest for now, Iota did promise us time to rest after we handled this." Vanir said, mustering up whatever cheer he could, not even a day in Haven and Iota already had us fighting again.

"We should be coming up at the dock now." Mithril said tiredly as the Bullhead slowed down. "Thank Dust." Vanir said with a groan and a yawn as the Bullhead came to a stop and the bay door opened, the four of us quickly disembarked the ship and it quickly took off, returning to Mordred's ship. "Now for some food and the terror of being jumped by Iota." I said as we all jogged to get out of the rain which was starting to die down slightly.

Before we could cross the street to the tavern that Iota was using as a base the sound of sirens and Bullheads filled the air, apparently the police noticed our skirmish. "Iota is going to be pissed." I said as my shoulders drooped in shame for not controlling my brothers destructive tendencies. "She can get over it." Vanir said while walking out into the rain. I could only follow him in the hope that she would.

 **Finally decided to get around to fixing a mistake i made with how the storytelling is done, this little arc will be set aside as one separate story so I can return to the original style i used.**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Vanir Argent**_

As the four of us entered the tavern we were greeted by a cheer from the twenty Maleficar currently sitting in the main room, all of them were enjoying their meal, which consisted of beef stew and some type of bread, with alcohol as a drink, the smells made my mouth water.

"Welcome back." Iota said as she walked over to us, her face was already flushed red, meaning this was at least her fourth drink. "Thanks for letting us in." Niren said calmly as he sat down at the bar, the rest of us followed him. I took a moment to look at Iota, it had been at least three or four years since i had seen her last, she had dyed her hair from blonde to auburn and had grown from 5' 6" to at least 5' 7", her skin was also paler as well, though it worked with her red eyes.

"Hephaestus! Get them some food, the poor sods have been out in the rain all night!" Iota shouted at the older man who was in the kitchen getting some food for us already. "Still can't hold your drinks I see." I commented to her after taking a sip from my own mug. "And you still don't know how to hold back." Iota retorted with a grin.

"Given what happened in Vale, and the fact that my wounds no longer heal after a couple of seconds, I think holding back is no longer required." I said as Hephaestus set a bowl of stew down in front of me and the others. "He has a point." Niren said while eating his food and sniffling a little.

"Well, think of it as a new challenge." Iota said after chugging her drink. "By the way Vanir, when did you get this lovely lady to start going out with you?" Iota asked me after wrapping an arm around my neck and looking over at Mithril, who was busy wolfing down her food while Nexus simply looked on.

"Second semester of my first year at Beacon, I have Argo to thank for that." I said, trying to get the shorter woman off my back. "Oh really? Last time I fought him the bastard was talking nonsense about making you pay for forcing Mordred to come and save his sorry hide." Iota said after I finally got her off of me, she was enjoying making this miserable for me.

"To be honest, before that day I thought you and Lirril were a thing." Mithril said after she set down her bowl, Hephaestus came by and picked up it, moving to refill it."Just because we were always arguing back then didn't mean we were a couple!' I said loudly, drawing some more looks from the rest of the Maleficar.

"Iota, let the lad eat his food, must be the first good thing he's had for while, those Knights probably don't know how to cook a damn thing." A large bull faunus said after chugging his drink. "Yeah, alright Aries, i'll lay off." Iota said, she got up and began to walk back to the crowd of Maleficar who had gone back to being loud and enjoying their evening, before she was out of earshot however she turned and said "It's good to have you guys back, even if it is only for a few weeks or months."

"I've missed this lot." I said after i shoveled some stew into my mouth, it was warm and had plenty of meat and vegetables in it. "You also missed my cooking too it seems." Hephaestus said after walking out of the kitchen and sitting next to Niren, eating his own food now.

"That too." I said before returning to my meal. "So, when is Mordred going to get this thing started?" Hephaestus asked with a moody look on his face. "Once he's done rooting out the last remaining Knight hideouts in the city he will contact us." Niren said, finishing off his own drink after speaking.

"Then we can finally end this blighted war once and for all." I said, I set my bowl down as it no longer had any soup in it. "I want to see what comes from this then." Hephaestus said with a small smile spreading across his face at the thought. After a while of just enjoying the company of the Maleficar I got up to stretch and get ready to sleep for a couple of hours "Where are our rooms at?" I asked after Mithril and Niren both rose to follow. "Up the stairs, last two doors on the left." Hephaestus said while yawning. "Thanks" I said before moving towards the stairs.

"Vanir, you and Mithril can share a room, I need space to work and Nexus wants to help out a little too." Niren said to me after the four of us reached the rooms that Hephaestus directed us to. "Fine by me." Mithril said, a small grin spreading across her face. "Right, see you in the morning then." I said to Niren, who by now was standing in his own doorway.

 _ **Mithril Fullbuster**_

I woke up to the smell of bacon and felt Vanirs mechanical arm wrapped around me, I slowly moved it to get up and shower, and only smiled when Vanir made a slight groan as the headache he most likely had from last nights drinking left him with.

"So lass, what do you think of the Maleficar, now that you've met the rest of us?" Aries asked me as he sat down at the table opposite of me. "I thought you would all be as serious as Niren and Vanir are about stopping the Knights." I said while trying not to yawn.

"Well, most of us weren't kidnapped and forced to undergo experiments in genetic modification." Aries said while stretching. "What?" I asked in surprise. "Three years with Vanir and he never told you about the scars around his neck and other spots on his body?" Aries asked me with interest, he was leaning back in his chair now.

"No… he said that they were from some fights during his time with the Knights." I said, though now that I thought about it, Vanir did have a dark look in his eyes at the time we spoke about it. "Like I said experiments done to him and Niren caused those scars, I imagine being taken from their homes also caused their current personalities. The rest of us do want to take out the Knights though." Aries replied with a shrug.

"Aries, can you not talk about my reasons for hating the Knights?" Vanir asked after walking down the stairs, he was looking tired still and had to hold up a hand to keep the light out of his eyes. "Sorry Vanir, just wanted to get to know a new face is all." Aries replied jovially Vanir scowled as he sat down at my table and said "There are better ways to do that." A moment later Hephaestus brought out some plates with eggs and bacon with toast, and some coffee. "Thanks." Vanir grumbled as he tore into his food, I was eating at a slower pace, feeling awkward about the situation.

After a while the others started to fill the main floor with chatter and laughter, I was still surprised at the fact that they weren't doom and gloom like I had thought they would be. "So, what do you think of our family?" Iota asked me as I was returning to the table, two plates of food in my hands. "Still surprised at how happy everyone is, you could all die tomorrow but you don't seem to care." I responded, letting her take one of the plates for me. "That's why their happy, better to die with no regrets or hate on your mind." Iota said as we walked back to the table, Vanir and Niren seemed busy talking with other Maleficar about something.

"Crazy bastard decided to go toe to toe with an Archon, didn't think he was going to last as long as he did." Niren said while leaning back in his chair, Vanir had his arms crossed and was grinning. "Is that how he lost his arm?" Aries asked, leaning forward with interest. "Nah, deathstalker went and did that the Archon only broke it." Vanir replied, a grin on his face I figured out what fight the two of them were talking about this time. "That was a stupid move Vanir." I said after setting down the plates and giving him an angry glare.

"So does that mean you cared about Vanir _before_ you two got attacked by Argo?" Niren asked me with a raised eyebrow. "Well uh… you see…." Was all I could stammer before the roof was filled with laughter, I looked over at Vanir and only saw a small smile on his face. "Didn't think you would ever tease someone like that Niren." Iota said after the laughter died down. "I have my moments." Niren replied simply before picking up his cup and drinking from it. "Right, we should all get ready for our jobs then." Iota said, becoming very business like.

"About time we got to work." Vanir said, his own face was becoming serious as well. "Your team doesn't have to do much today beyond getting a feel for the city and helping deal with any rioters, can't have them getting in the way during our operations." Iota said while looking at the four of us. "Seems fair enough, what about the rest of you?" Niren responded. "Some of us will stay here with Hephaestus, keep things safe while the rest of us are out taking down knight outposts." Iota said as several groups of Maleficar began to leave the building, they already knew their jobs then.

"Best of luck everyone, get back here in one piece if possible." Iota said after she finished giving instructions to the remaining Maleficar. "Let's go then." Vanir said while getting up, I still needed to go and get _Typhoon._ "Meet us here, Vanir stay with her." Niren said after handing Vanir a piece of paper with an address.

 _ **Nexus**_

I looked around the city street we had been walking down, it was messy due to riots after the Grimm hit Vale the people felt terror at the idea that their home would be attacked next, though for now things had calmed down possibly due to the knights under Mordred's command telling people things would be fine should the grimm attack. "Looks like we didn't need our weapons after all." Niren said as I looked around more, noticing how quiet things were. "Don't say that, it usually ends with us fighting someone." I said after seeing a few people run down an alley. "I hate the silence, puts me on edge." Vanir said, moving to put himself between Mithril and any would be thug with a knife. "We should just be careful for now." I said, seeing another group of people move down an alley.

This day had been nothing but stress, we had seen no activity that would suggest the knights were active in the city anymore, and Mordred had yet to send a courier with information about the remaining warships and forces siding with him. "Hold up." Vanir said, drawing me out of my calculations for the coming battles, when I looked up I noticed that Niren and him were talking to a man who looked like a courier. "What was that about?" I asked after the man left, Niren was holding a small note in his hands. "Mordred finally sent word." Niren answered, already turning to head back to the inn, the others would come back eventually. "Great, we can get things moving along then." I said, pleased that we weren't just sitting around for once.

Two Hours Later

"So.. Mordred went and recruited the knights from Atlas and some other defectors from Vacuo, but how many ships does he have now?" Iota said, leaning over a war map while I ran numbers beside her. "Out of the five hundred that the knights had when last we checked, Mordred now controls two hundred and thirty of that number as well as any fighters and marines they have." Niren answered, his arms crossed and a frown on his face. "What class are they?" Ares asked, I was done running numbers and had begun several simulations on possible tactics. "Trident class light frigates mostly, looks like Uther was expecting this to happen and pulled back what few heavies he could, though Mordred did manage to get his own fair share of them, looks like his flagship isn't going to be the dreadnought he got his hands on though." Vanir said, at this point my simulations had gone from small scale combat to larger areas and locations, I was even beginning to factor in the Grimm now. "Nexus, got any good plans in that head of yours?" Iota asked me, finally taking note of my eyes glowing as they processed more information. "Nothing right now, Uther could do anything and I would be surprised if he chose to have a straight up fight against us." I said with a hand on my chin as I looked down at the map of Remnant, noting how few ships our forces had and wondering how many would be left after it was all said and done. "We need more ships if we want to turn the odds in our favor." I said simply after a few more minutes of calculations, in that time the others had begun to make plans for troop movements. "How are we supposed to do that?" Iota asked me while leaning forward on the table again. "We can see how many ships Ironwood is willing to part with." I said while walking around the table to the part of the map with Atlas on it. "Doubt he would part with any of them after Vale." Mithril said while frowning. "It's the only other option we have, Uther's pulled back all his remaining ships and even Mordred is having problems tracking them down, we can't just sneak aboard and blow them up now." Niren said while rubbing his forehead. "Are there any free fleets still around or has Atlas actually managed to get rid of them all?" Vanir asked, Iata's head snapped up at the sentence. "I'd rather not bring them into this fight, half of them would end up dead anyway." Iota said before looking down at the map once again. "We need to figure something out to even the odds here." I replied before going back to my sims and calculations.

After several more hours of arguing we had run out of ideas to engage the enemy and everyone was getting pissed at everyone else. "I need a break from this." Vanir grumbled after Iota moved yet another unit back to it's start location. "Is it really this hard for you to come up with a plan to fight my father now when you've all done it for years?" Mordred asked after he opened the door. "How the fuck did you get in here?" Iota asked after jumping slightly at his sudden entrance. "My ship has been hovering over the outskirts for the last two hours, I didn't trust the information I have to a normal courier given it's importance." Mordred said while walking over to the war table, Niren and Vanir moved to give him a spot. "Figured you had some information you were holding back, so what is it?" I replied with a small grin on my face. "There are several knight shipyards that are producing at least thirty more ships if you combine their numbers, take control of those and you'll have your own small fleet to assist mine, there are also other knights across Remnant who are willing to help against my father." Mordred said while placing markers on several spots on the map. "How did they manage to avoid being killed by your dad?" Iota asked while rubbing her chin and moving some pieces to the spots that Mordred marked. "No clue to be honest with you, my father's last move was to pull out the majority of his men from every city besides Vale. Any forces you've faced until now are the dregs." Mordred replied while accepting a glass of water someone placed in front of him. "Thank you." He said after taking a sip. "Uther wants us to take those ships then, he doesn't think he would need them to win." I said a smile on my face as I ran several more sims that provided a better outcome thanks to new numbers and some new plans. "What are you planning android?" Mordred asked me after noticing my smile. "A plan that gives us a shot in hell of winning the fight." I replied as I began moving other pieces on the map.

After we had finally come up with a plan to find the small cells of knights that were still in the dark about what was going on several groups of Maleficar had been dispatched to the other kingdoms, Niren, Vanir, Mithril and I had been sent to Vacuo to meet a group that had loyalty to Mordred already, Vanir also knew some people who would help to bolster our forces. "So who are these people you know?" Mithril asked Vanir as we all sat in the hold of a bullhead, being tossed around by the turbulence we had just hit. "Let's just say that they aren't associated with the military or the knight's." Vanir said, a small grin on his face. "So you want to bring in a free fleet in spite of Iota wanting us to keep them out of it?" I asked, not amused by the idea my friend had come up with. "We need more than just thirty ships to make up the numerical difference Nexus." Niren replied calmly as he pulled out a map and started looking over it. "How many ships can they give us?" I asked while settling back in the seat. "At least fifty more, they won't be the best but their captains are clever when it comes to taking out bigger threats." Vanir replied with some pride in his voice. "They better not get themselves killed then Vanir." Mithril said sourly. "It's a war, there's always going to be casualties." I said simply, feeling relieved as the turbulence finally died down. "Let's make a plan to make contact with these guys then." Vanir said before taking another drink from his flask.

"Nexus, help me set up a safe house, Mithril you can go with Vanir and get some supplies and start asking questions." Niren said as the bullhead started to slow down. "Seems fair enough, if I can set up a small comm tower I can at least make contact with other Maleficar in the region." I replied, standing up to grab my bag which clanked as the armor inside moved around. As Vanir and Mithril walked in a different direction than the one Niren and I had decided to head I covered my eyes from the very bright sun. "There's a Maleficar safe house nearby we can set up in, anything large scale like the comms tower can come later." Niren said to me as we walked down the city street, he didn't seem bothered by the heat since he was part lizard. "What's wrong?" Niren asked me after I turned my attention back to the way in front of me. "How do you think Talia and Lirril are?" I asked him as we neared the safehouse. "They should be fine, Talia only got a scar across her back and should only need some rest, Lirril might require some therapy though." Niren replied as we walked up a flight of stairs, I realized that I was actually getting hot now from the sun shining directly on us. "That doesn't sound so bad." I said as we both entered the building and felt the difference in temperature. "True, things could have been much worse, in fact we should consider ourselves lucky that Vanir didn't need to have a heart transplant after his healing implant burnt out." Niren said as we began to climb a larger flight of stairs. "Yeah, that would have been worse." I said after we reached the floor our safe house was on. When the door opened Niren sneezed, a thick film of dust covered everything, showing just how long it had been since anyone had been here. "Before we set up any equipment we should clean the bloodstains." Niren said while pointing at some dark marks on the wall. "Looks like the knights found this one." I said as we began to look for some stuff to clean the mess with. "Looks like it." Niren said after turning on a water faucet.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I walked down the street with Mithril, things here seemed to be better than in Mistral "So, where are these free captains you were talking about?" Mithril asked me as some people moved to the other end of the sidewalk, taking note of _Gram_. "They like to gather in a bar a few blocks from here, as to whether they'll help I have no clue since I don't have access to massive amounts of money, though a few enjoy fighting so the idea of a massive fleet battle should make them come around." I replied, already annoyed with that fact that I might end up only adding twenty or fifteen ships to the fight. "So, what about the rest of them?" Mithril asked me as we turned down another street and saw a group of soldiers on patrol. "I might be able to convince them that knights have plenty of plunder in return for their services, the idea of new ships and weapons should also convince a few others." I said before taking a moment to look at the buildings around me and figure out where we had walked to. "Then after we get their help what do we do?" Mithril asked me while moving a little closer to me. "Then we wait for a message to arrive over the old morse code machines we've been using that says the battle will happen, I give the time for gathering forces at least two months." I replied before stopping in front of a somewhat decent looking bar. "This the place?" Mithril asked me after she came to a stop. "Yeah, don't let the outside fool you the inside is actually nice, free captains have their own standards." I said before opening the door and stepping inside with Mithril following close behind me.

After my eyes adjusted to the soft glow of lamps I was greeted by silence and only grinned. "Is this how you treat guests old man?!" I shouted so that the bartender could hear me clearly. "Only scoundrels who forget to pay!" The bartender shouted at me before grinning, several other patrons also started to grin before laughing loudly. "Good to see you again old man." I said while embracing the bartender who had walked up to me after the other patrons went back to their drinks or games. "Likewise, though you still owe me for last time." He replied while ushering Mithril and I to a booth. "So, what'll you have? Or are you here looking for a ship?" The bartender asked me while pulling out a notepad. "Im looking for a whole damn fleet, and it looks like most the captains in the area are here tonight, what's the occasion?" I replied, confused at the number of captains and crewmen. "Ever since Vale the military has been cracking down on free fleets." The bartender said while taking a seat across from us. "Then I don't have to wait long for word to get out that I need their ships do I?" I replied with a smile as the bartender pulled out his notepad and a pen. "What do you need them for?" He asked me in a business like tone, I leaned in before replying with one simple word that anyone would be able to understand "War."

As Mithril and I walked back to the safehouse I noticed how quiet she was. "Whats wrong?" I asked her as my eyes began to adjust to the dimming light. "Nothing, it's just that feel like someone is watching us." Mithril replied while looking over her shoulder, I frowned before deciding what to do "When we get to the safehouse get inside, I'm going to hunt for any tagalongs." I said as we neared the block that the safehouse was at. As we continued to walk I thought about the reaction the bartender had as he wrote down the details, the free captains had more knowledge of the Argent War than Atlas did given how many times we had hired some of them in the past. "Go inside and let Niren know what I'm up to, he'll understand." I said after we reached the door "The door should be open just listen for motors and electricity." I said as an afterthought. "Right, be careful." Mithril said before giving me a hug and walking in the building. "Yeah." I said quietly before walking away from the building and starting what would be a long patrol.

After several hours of walking I finally heard a pair of footsteps behind me, they were far off but my ears picked them up with ease, I quickly turned down an alley and hid behind a dumpster, waiting for the person to follow me down it. After a few moments the person began walking down the alley, I could tell from their footfall that it was a woman, the smell also told me that. After she had walked past my hiding spot, which was poor enough I quickly stood up and wrapped an arm around their neck while holding the Hades up and letting a small amount of heat vent towards her face. "Scream and I will not hesitate to kill you." I said to her quietly and noting her eyes widening. After a moment she nodded, and I let her go while keeping Hades charged and ready in case she pulled gun or knife on me. "Why are you following me?" I asked her after she crossed her arms. "You're a wanted man, I'm taking you in." She responded, only eliciting a chuckle from me. "No you're not, I have a war to win and I won't let some new cop send me to jail for a crime that I haven't even committed." I said after I finished chuckling. "You think I can't take you down?!" She said, offended by my attitude. "I know you can't, go ahead and fire your little peashooter at me." I said before turning to leave and letting my aura flare up, the black energy nearly invisible in the dark, a moment later I felt a bullet bounce off my back. "See you later kid." I said before leaving the alley and frowning " _Can't believe I got worried about a fucking cop._ " I thought to myself as I returned to the safehouse.

When I closed the door to the safe house the first thing I heard was Nexus playing a tune on Kyofu, it had been a while since he had a chance to use his weapons other function as a guitar for a more recreational purpose. "You're back, who was it following you?" Mithril said as I entered the room that had been cleaned and set up with several computers. "Just a cop, Niren check and see if there are any bounties or arrest warrants out for us." I replied before walking to sit down on a couch and sigh, it had been a long day for me. "On it, CCT may still be fucked up but I should be able to pull up some local files from databanks, which we have access to of course." Niren said while typing on the keyboard in front of him. "So, what did you do with the cop?" Nexus asked me, still playing a tune. "Let her go, no point giving them a reason to arrest me beyond what may or may not be there already." I said while closing my eyes. "Found something." Niren said after a few minutes of silence "Well, what do they have out for me?" I asked with interest. "Someone put out a missing child report a few days ago, description of the suspect matches you to the letter, Hades and all." Niren said as I stood up to go look at the report for myself. "What the fuck?" I said with a confused look on my face as Niren began to pull up several dialogues between an investigator and a woman. "Copy these, I need to do some reading." I said, my face straight as I thought of who would put out such a ridiculous thing. "Do whatever you want brother, I'm going to keep looking for things, see if there might be anything on Nexus and I." Niren said as the printer on the far end of the room before to print several pages out. "Right." I said as I went to grab the pages. "Well then while you're doing that, I'm going to get some sleep." Mithril said after yawning, I nodded to her as she walked down the hall towards one of the three rooms that weren't filled with supplies. "I'm gonna get some rest too." Nexus said while getting up to head into a room as well. "Just like the old days eh?" Niren said after the others had left the room. "Yeah, those were some interesting years." I said as I began reading the very lengthy report and sighing. "Hey, don't fret over what you did back then, the knights made you do that, _Morgana_ made you do that with her semblance." Niren said, thinking I was still angry at myself for my own actions. "I know, but she's dead and the both of us are still alive, so what does that say?" I responded as I went to another page that was more interesting. "It says that we made the right choice in fighting her ships and forces on that mission." Niren replied as he began to print more pages. "The only reason we won that fight was because of Qrow." I said after using a mark to outline some information that I considered interesting. "Nah, we did our fair share of fighting and killing." Niren said with a grin on his face. "This is interesting, who's Alice Greywater?" I asked after reading the end of the report and finally finding the full name of the woman who came to the police about this. "Let's take a look." Niren said, already pulling up several pages of names within the city limits and outside of it. "Fuck me." I said as we began to look for the name Greywater.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

I sat up in my bed and sighed, it had been about a month since the battle of Beacon and I was still in therapy, Niren and Vanir had left with Nexus and Mithril and left Talia, Rennic, Torque, and I behind to recover. "I hate this." I said to myself as my hand went down to the scar on my leg, the doctors told me that whatever went through had left me hamstrung and that I would need to spend a few months in therapy. "At least everyone made it out ok." I said as I reached over to the radio to turn up the music that was playing, wishing that Talia would return soon. I was thinking about Vanir and Niren when the door was practically kicked open and Talia entered the room with food and drinks for the both of us. "How's Yang?" I asked her after she sat down, we were still on Patch since airships were tight and Qrow had given us the address of his nieces, Talia had taken a liking to visiting and trying to cheer up Yang, and also to see if Ruby was recovering well. "Still mopey, even Vanir wasn't that bad after he lost an arm." Talia replied as she leaned back in her chair "Vanir was disillusioned at the time and Niren was working on the _Hades_ as soon as he got the chance to." I replied while frowning, perhaps the battle had left me disillusioned as well. " _No, that happened long before then, when I saw the brutality of life from Vanir and Nirens perspective._ " I thought to myself as I took the bottle of water Talia had offered me. "Thanks." I said with a smile, at least I wasn't completely alone on Patch. Talia had begun to eat a bag of chips and turned on the television, all we were able to get was movies that the hospital had and the Talia had used her own money to buy.

"So, any letters from Niren?" I asked after the movie started. "Last one I got was sent from Mistral, looks like He and the others are finally making a move to finish off the knights, and Mordred is leading the charge with his own men." Talia replied, her attention on the TV. "I hope Vanir can put his hate towards Mordred aside." I said, worried about what might happen if Vanir let that cloud his vision. "So… Mordred seems like a nice guy, pretty handsome, you thinking of claiming him?" Talia suddenly asked me, a sly look on her face as she sipped her soda. "What makes you ask that?" I asked, my face starting to get red. "I've seen those drawings of yours, I'm surprised that you could remember his features so well." Talia said, still looking sly and still drinking "You looked through my sketchbook, when did you look through it?" I asked, feeling the blood burning in my face. "While you slept." Talia replied, of course she would look at it while I slept. "I get why you're so worried about Vanir getting pissed at Mordred, you don't want Vanir cutting him up like a pork roast." Talia said with a smile on her face. "Please don't tell Vanir or Niren, I don't want them to be mad at me." I said, unable to deny it. "I won't it would be better if you told them when we finally meet back up with them again anyway." Talia said to me, still smiling as she turned her attention back to the TV.

The next few days had me doing more physical activity than the last few weeks had, I guess the doctors wanted me to get back into fighting shape as soon as possible, probably something Niren said to them, or my own insistence at the very beginning of therapy. "Keep going Lirril, your almost at two hundred." Talia Said as I pushed myself up again, she was heavier than she looked and was currently sitting on my back. "One hundred… eighty… seven." I gasped as I pushed myself back up again, a bead of sweat running down my face and over an eye. "Come on, Vanir can do three hundred with me on his back, you don't want to be weaker than him." Talia goaded me on as I kept doing more pushups i kept silent count as I neared the two hundred mark. "One more." Talia said as I struggled to lift myself one last time, after a split second of my arms being fully extended I fell on my stomach. "Good job, now let's do some squats and follow it up with a jog." Talia said after helping me up, my leg was burning but I had to keep going. "Here drink some water." Talia said while handing me a large bottle to drink out of. "Thanks." I said after swallowing. "Let's go." I said as we moved over to a barbell with weights set up already. "Alright, try for fifty today." Talia said as I moved to lift the bar, it was heavy but still a weight I could lift. After a few minutes of lifting my legs had begun to feel like jelly and I was starting to have trouble bringing myself back up "Forty three." Talia said before I went back down again for the forty fourth. "Almost there." Talia said before I had to rack the bar, my leg in a great deal of pain from the strain. "Sorry Talia, couldn't do it." I said in between breaths. "It's fine, you managed to get to forty eight, let's take a minute to rest then start jogging. "Yeah." I said before finding a bench to sit down on, I really wanted to use _Garuda_ to fan myself with the rotation of it's blades, the gym had rules against weapons though so that was a no go.

"This is fun." Talia said as I caught my breath, she was rubbing her back where she had been cut, and I was rubbing my leg that had a bullet hole in it. "Yeah, let's get jogging." I said as I stood up and stretched, feeling the muscles in my body relax. "Sounds good." Talia replied, also getting up as we went outside to get ready to run.

 _ **Niren Argent**_

I had fallen asleep in my chair after spending the entire night and part of the morning looking for any connection Vanir had with this Alice Greywater, I was woken up by Mithril gently shaking my shoulder. "What's wrong?" I asked groggily as I opened my eyes and accepted a glass of water from her. "Just wanted to know what you found out about that police officer from last night." Mithril said as she sat down next to me, I noticed her hair was wet meaning Nexus had actually fixed the shower. "Yeah, just a name that has no meaning to either of us." I replied before drinking some of the water. "What's the name, I might know something about whoever it is." Mithril replied while leaning back in her chair "Alice Greywater, do you know her?" I responded after draining the glass, I had just noticed that the shower was running. "Don't think I do, did you find any pictures of her?" Mithril replied while rubbing her chin, a habit she had picked up from Vanir. "Doesn't matter who she is, I want some answers about this whole problem." Vanir said as he stepped out into the hall, his hair still damp and only using one arm to dry his face, the Hades was sitting on the table, in several pieces. "I can try and find a picture of her or an address." I said after yawning "Maybe after breakfast and a shower though." I thought to myself after my stomach growled.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Vanir Argent**_

I moved the fingers of the _Hades_ like Niren told me to and smiled, they seemed to be working right again, the battle at beacon and more recently the battle at the storehouse had left the thing in need of repairs, mostly in the hand since the fingers had become sluggish compared to the first battle. "How's that?" Niren asked me after he made another adjustment and I repeated the movement, this time the fingers moved as well as my flesh and blood hand "Good, check the other joints just to be safe." I said after I was satisfied with the speed that they moved. "Good idea, I should find some time to work on the next model too, this one still has some flaws that I want to correct." Niren said as he stood up and began to work on the wrist, slowly moving up to the shoulder joints. "Finally." I said after moving my arm and making sure it was as fast as my other one. "If that starts acting up again tell me." Niren said as he stood up and stretched his back. "Got it." I replied before picking up the cup of coffee that Mithril had placed in front of me.

"So how about the knights, we need to focus on finding them before we focus on a madwoman saying I kidnapped someone, besides, most of our actions are going to happen at night so it's not like people will see us, besides they don't know your faces." I said while sitting down and drinking my coffee, Niren was already back to work on finding the knights, things wouldn't be easy for awhile, at least until the CCT in Vale was repaired. "I already have a lead on them, but we should meet them at night, seems safer since we have the law enforcement on us now." Niren said in response to my previous statement. "So now what?" Mithril asked us after we spent a moment in awkward silence. I stood up and stretched before walking over to the chair I left my coat on and picked it up and putting it on "We go see how many free captains want to join us." I said while strapping _Gram_ across my back. "Damnit Iota said we didn't need to bring them in." Niren said while still typing. "We need the numbers here Niren, besides those knights won't have enough men to pilot the ships." I replied after making sure I had everything and heading over to the door "We can discuss it later." Niren said as I left with Mithril in tow.

"Thats a shit number of willing captains." I said after the barkeep showed me the small pile of letters that captains had sent in the event I showed up today. "You can't expect all of them to jump headfirst into hell without proof you can win the fight." He said while polishing a glass, in true bartender style. "Then these ones will have to do, they can man the ships I plan on taking anyway." I said while writing down a note for the small group of volunteers. "Right, well if you survive some more might join up." He said as I left some money on the bar and stood up to leave. "Tell them that if I survive they won't be needed." I said before leaving, Mithril had been waiting outside, leaning against the wall and just looking bored "So how many of them are going to help?" She asked me after I started walking down the street. "Not enough, I planned on having them use the knights ships after we captured them, looks like that's not going to happen." I replied with a frown on my face, despite Mordred working with us and taking out several small fleets belonging to the loyalist faction, I still couldn't trust him to not stab me in the back, not after all the people I've taken from him. "You still don't trust Mordred and his people do you?" Mithril asked while grabbing my arm and pulling me closer towards her, I still didn't care about some of the looks people gave us, although a few may have been because of my face being on a wanted poster or two. "After the things i've done I'm surprised he hasn't killed us yet." I said after Mithril let go of my arm and we started to walk again, this was just a shit start to the day, hopefully Niren discovered something in the time it took us to walk down here.

"Glad to know that we aren't going to throw an entire armada of free captains at this problem." Niren said while typing something on the computer he had set up, I was sitting across from him and frowning. "No need to rub it in." I replied after yawning, it had been awhile since I slept well and the lack of sleep was finally catching up. "Get some rest, i'm already tracking the movements of the cell, it's not a good sized one but I think they should be enough to commandeer those ships, or at least half of them." Niren said to me while pointing at the couch, I stood up from the chair and went over to it, practically tossing myself onto it " Fine, when you find something interesting wake me up." I said before slowly drifting off to sleep.

 _Red lights flashing, men screaming and weapons firing, at my feet is a dead body wearing little to no armor with only a white tabard that was quickly turning crimson making the symbol that marked its allegiance unable to be seen. "Kill him already damnit!" Someone shouted as I looked away from the corpse and began to walk towards the group of faunus who had been shooting at me, most of their bullets being blocked by Gram, a few got by a grazed my fingers and shoulders but they only fueled my bloodlust._

 _A moment later I was tearing the group of faunus apart and taking a moment to catch my breath, and look at my work a large pool of blood with bodies that no longer resembled a body. "Sir! The base has been secured but we have a problem." A knight reported after running up to me, his gear had marks on it were bullets must have hit or grazed him. "What?" I asked as he looked down at the floor, for the first time noticing the mess "You're a newbie aren't you?" I asked him, straightening myself up and swinging Gram to get the blood off of it. "Uh.. yes sir." He said as we both started walking, I let him take the lead since I honestly had no clue how this place was laid out. "We encountered some women and children, most of them are human but there are some faunus." He said as my ran a hand down my face, my semblance had left me with a headache._

" _Why haven't you released them yet?" I asked as we turned and walked down another hall, this one ending in what I could assume to be a prison. "Commander!" Two knights said in unison while saluting me "Let me in." I said while they lowered their weapons, halberds like Nirens. Several knights were treating wounds on the few prisoners and giving them something to eat "That's why sir, most of them can't walk from being chains up too long." The knight said after I stopped and nearly knocked him backwards. "I see." I said grimly before looking at one of the knights who holding a rifle and nodded to him, a few moments later the others knight started to clear out giving simple excuses such as needed to get some medical supplies or more food, what the prisoners didn't see was the knights starting to line up on the upper level of the jail, leveling their rifles at them. I left the room and closed off the noise of screaming and gunfire they didn't deserve that, but the higher ups wanted us to remain secret from the public._

 _A moment after gunfire stopped I heard a blade being drawn and quickly turned around and used the palm of my hand to catch it, wincing in pain as it went straight through it entirely "Murderer!" The newbie yelled as I tossed him to the ground and pulled the blade from my hand "We have our orders." I said before lifting the blade and stabbing the man in the throat, he would die slowly "No one must know about the knights, not even civilians who say they won't talk." I said as he slowly choked on his own blood. "You monster…." He croaked out before finally going limp "Clean this mess up, and torch the building." I said to the other knights who had been looking on, I needed some air after that._

"Vanir wake up." Niren said, drawing me out of the nightmare. "What is it?" I asked, my eyes snapping open after a moment. "I finally made contact with them, there's a problem however." Niren said while backing up and giving me some space to move. "And that is?" I replied, still tired and rubbing my eyes. "The same problem you have right now….. Alice Greywater." He said while my face quickly soured.

 _ **Mordred Pendragon**_

I stood on the command deck of the Temeraire and watched as another one of my father's dwindling supply of ships slowly fell from the sky and into the ocean below. "Sir, fighter squadrons are performing mop up now and the Grimm are moving in on lifeboats below." A crewman reported as I watched the holographic display show the results of the battle, it was easier than watching the actual battle these days, especially with one eye gone " _Damn you Adam Taurus._ " I thought to myself as another crewman asked me a question "Do we send rescue teams to get the survivors?" I frowned and looked at the display again, heat readings were high, the Grimm had too many for a rescue op to go well "Leave them, there's too many Grimm now." I said calmly while holding the rail in front of me, the commander's position was lacking a chair and stood elevated above the rest of the bridge, giving me a good view of everything.

"Yes sir, fighters are reporting all clear, recalling them now for repairs before the next ships arrive." The crewman responded while turning back to his console. "This has been a good day, sixteen frigates and three cruisers downed, the Maleficar are getting a decent amount of ships to fight with as well." Malacci said from behind me, he had a habit of sticking close, mainly because of the value I had begun to place in him and his semblance before Vale, but now his abilities were even more useful to me. "Agreed, how soon can we land forces at the depot?" I replied, wanting to get into the fight as soon as possible. "A couple of hours at least, repair teams need to fix the ship's up before we engage a fortified position that probably still has some ships at it." Malacci responded with a sigh.

"The deck is yours Malacci, call me when we start moving again, my eye hurts." I said while turning around and walking to the door that led into a lift. "Aye sir." Malacci said while turning around and walking to the end of the walkway "Alright people let's start those repairs! I want scout wings out in ten minutes, there will be no surprise attacks!" Malacci shouted to the crew as I entered the lift and turned around "At least he knows what to do." I said to myself as I leaned back against the wall, clutching the area around my eye, the one Taurus took. " _Why did I have to fight him? But why for her?_ " I asked myself as the door opened to my quarters.

I decided not to dwell on the matter and get some rest, I had been commanding a battle for several days straight, at this point I'm surprised that Atlas hasn't gotten involved. "Ugh, let this war end soon." I said while looking at the ceiling, my eyes slowly drifting closed.

" _Mordred, the enemy base is twenty minutes off._ " Malacci said over an intercom, waking me up very well "About damn time." I said to myself as I grabbed _Caliburn_ and ran to the lift, the hangar was my next stop today would be a very good day after all. "Good to see your feeling better sir." Percival said to me as I stepped out of the lift, putting on my helmet and taking off down the hall "Still getting used to the new eye." I replied as the two of us sprinted into the massive hangar, it was one of two and filled with bullheads, my men were in well formed blocks and getting their orders and briefing from their commanding officers, the small group of Maleficar however were gathered around their three Bullheads and doing the same. "Some of the men still don't trust them." Percival said to me as we reached our Bullhead and stepped inside. "Their going to trust them by the end of today, Iota is going after the largest gun emplacement she can find." I responded as the rest of our squad boarded.

"Wish I was going with them then." Percival said with a chuckle as the rest of the team boarded their own ships and we prepared for lift off. "We are." I said in response, smiling a little at his joy at going into a large battle for the first time in weeks. " _Wish I could join you sir, but someone has to keep the ships in check._ " Malacci said over the comm channel. "Merlin can take command next time then." I replied as I felt my gut drop from the drop as the Bullhead fell from the belly of the ship, we didn't use a main entrance, too much of a chance for boarders to get in, a system of berths worked just fine for us. "Yeah yeah… Open fire, clear the commander and his strike force a path through that AA fire!" Malacci said over comms as the ship began to shake from the anti air rounds going off around us, a moment later the two sliding doors opened and we got our first view of the approach.

"Well shit." Percival said as several of our support teams ended up getting shot down, the Maleficar on the other hand seemed to be avoiding the guns much better than us. "Iota! Land your forces on the east landing pad, there shouldn't be too many knights there." I said to the Maleficar leader over the comm channel "Yeah I see it...plenty of knights down there for us to kill too." Iota responded a moment before the Bullheads under her command split off from mine and went to clear a landing area for reinforcements. "Sir the guns are focusing on us!" The pilot said, drawing my attention from the battle below and to the cockpit. "Evasive maneuvers!" I shouted as several guns began to open fire on us "Closing blast doors." The pilot said while also moving out of the way of the lines of fire aimed at us. "Find a landing zone now!" I shouted just before the entire ship shook "Left engines are gone sir, you might want to hold on to something!" The pilot said as I quickly went back into the troop bay "Hold on!" I shouted to the others inside. "Oh boy here we go." Percival said before chuckling at the situation, we had been here before, I took a breath before being flung across the bay as the Bullhead hit the ground and jumped, a moment later my head hit the ceiling and I blacked out.

"Mordred, wake up." Percival said as my eyes slowly opened and I got a glimpse of the troop bay, one of the doors was torn open and it was empty except for the medic and some wounded. "How bad is the situation?" I asked while letting the man help me sit up. "Whoever wasn't wounded went to secure the crash site, loyalist forces tried to jump us before we had much chance to fight back." Percival replied as I put my helmet back on, the HUD wasn't working too well but it still gave me an extra layer of protection "Then I'm going out, we need to take out the guns nearest to us." I said, unsheathing _Caliburn_ and stepping outside the aircraft, my men were behind cover and standing up quickly to fire, looks like I was stepping out into a firefight. "Percival with me, those gunners need to be cleared out and our men aren't doing too well." I said after several shots bounced of my aura, which only flickered briefly. "No time like the present then eh?" Percival said, shouldering his mace and chuckling as the bullets also bounced off of his own red aura "Lets move!" I said before taking off in a straight line towards the enemy, Percival was lagging behind but would catch up.

"Shit it's Mordred!" A man shouted as I jumped over their cover and cut down two of them, a moment later there was a loud crash as Percival charged through the rubble they had been using, sending three more flying and crushing a fourths abdomen with his weapon, Two more hostiles rna up to me and drew their blades, a moment later ones head was on the ground and the other was missing an arm and begging for his life, I only stared at him as I lifted _Caliburn_ and brought down across his chest. "Looks like that's all for now, I'll signal the men to move up sir." Percival said after we took a moment to look around and make sure there wouldn't be anymore attackers. "Good, hold this point I'm going for that damnable gun." I said while looking at the massive turret, destroying it was the easy part, reaching it with no support would be the problem. "Understood sir, what do you want me to tell Malacci if he comes asking?" Percival asked me after he signaled the men "Tell him I went after the gun and to get some reinforcements in here as soon as possible." I said before taking off down the single bridge still standing, confident I could take out one gun emplacement.

 _ **Malacci**_

The command deck shook as a missile hit on of the decks below it, I only growled as the enemy ship before us, a cruiser continued its attack, Mordred hadn't said anything over comms and we were still trying to get a hold of him. "Sir, the enemy ship is about to launch another wave of missiles, orders?" A crewman reported "Have interceptors engage as many as possible, point defense open fire!" I said quickly before watching with satisfaction as several dozen missiles turned into fireballs due to a couple of interceptors already trying to stop them.

"Sir, I've managed to get Mordred on the line." Another crewman reported from his station, bringing me into the comm channel "Mordred do not destroy that gun yet, the enemy has a cruiser engaging us and we can't break those shields." I said quickly while typing a command to all crewman to begin firing, try and weaken the shields on it. "I'll do what I can." Mordred replied before closing the channel, I sighed and began to watch the fight again, this time the enemy was on the defensive while the battlegroup hammered it with battery fire. "Sir, the enemy ships shielding is failing on the aft engine pod, recommend focusing fire there." A crewman said to me as I brought up a display of it, the shielding had weakened there. "Send in bombers with escort, aim for the engine pod and see their reaction." I said calmly, my semblance was telling me nothing of this fight, too much going on at once for it to be effective. "Bombers away sir." The crewman reported as I stood watching.

 _ **Mordred Pendragon**_

I sat on a pile of rubble, catching my breath and looking at the activity going on in the courtyard by the gun emplacement, at a glance I would guess there was fifty loyalist knights outside, inside was a different problem altogether. "Looks like I've got no choice but to engage them directly now." I said, glad that they didn't think to send in walkers, but then again given how the sky was filled with aircraft them bringing in support like that by an airdrop is impossible.

A moment later I was rushing at my enemies, bullets bouncing off my aura, a few managed to break through and bounce off my armor, it couldn't stop a sword apparently but it could stop bullets well enough "Die!" I shouted as I jumped over their barricades and began to carve a path through the bodies in front of me, everything went by a flurry of blood and sparks, bullets and screams, despite my efforts however I was still outnumbered and they had finally managed to surround me, at least twenty men lay dead in a circle around me. "Lay down your weapon Mordred, Uther wants you alive." A loyalist said, confident that he had won. "Ever here the phrase don't count your chickens until they hatch?" A woman said with joy, a moment later what looked like a crescent made out of darkness tore through one side of the circle, the men who stood there looking confused as their upper halves slid away from their lower halves. "What the?" The man said before a large curved blade was shoved through his stomach and turned, quickly being brought up and slashed to the right and left, killing the two men closest to him. I rsuehd the last remaining knights and began to cut them down with my unexpected helper, after a few minutes of screaming I finally ran out of foes. "About time you showed up." I said after taking a breath, Iota flung the blood from her blade and chuckled in response.

"So your second in command wants this big gun to take out that cruiser eh? I think we can oblige him." Iota said as we walked into the lobby, surprisingly they didn't leave a guard there, or they did and the fools ran out into the battle outside, either way all that was left would be the gun crew. "We can also use this point as a command center for the time being, signal your men after we take control and I'll do the same with mine." I said as we both stepped into the elevator and went to the top floor. "Do all your AA emplacements look like bloody corporate buildings?" Iota asked me, seemingly out of curiosity. "This one seems to be an impromptu emplacement, they probably caught wind of the first few engagements and chose to set up here, it s gives commanding view doesn't it?" I replied before the elevator stopped and the door opened, both of us rushed out and engaged the crew, most of which had stopped their work and put their hands up, a few however tried to stand and fight, quickly being cut down. "Alright you bastards, turn this gun on that cruiser and open fire." Iota said while holding her blade out at the gun crew, they only nodded and began to do as the woman said. "Ruthless as ever I see." I said while walking out onto the balcony and watching the barrel of the gun swivel to point the cruiser, one of it's engine pods had been heavily damaged "Fire now!" I said, plugging my ears as the gun began to fire and the cruiser, after a few moments of concentrated fire the cruisers shield began to flicker and die. "Malacci hit that cruiser with everything you've got!" I shouted into the comm channel " _Understood. All ships target that cruiser and bring it down!_ " Malacci said in a voice better suited for commanding than mine at the moment.

After a couple of minutes of fighting the cruiser began to lean to the left, very dangerously "We should probably clear the area." Iota said as the ship began to crash into one of the platforms. "We should be fine, the platforms are designed to separate from each other given how much damage one platform takes." I replied while leaning against the railing and watching the second wave forces begin to deploy from the ships. " _Mordred, reinforcements just arrived to help secure the crash site, I'm getting wounded out of here for treatment now._ " Percival said over comms as I watched more Bullheads land in the courtyard below us. "Understood, meet me at the gun tower." I responded while walking back inside and looking at the gun crews, only a few of them remained "I'll let you live, but you have to assist my forces from now on." I said to them, earning nods of agreement from them.

An hour after we had secured a landing zone for the rest of our forces I found myself fighting down an alleyway with Iota and her Maleficar, Percival and some of my own forces were with me as well. "Been awhile since we launched an attack like this!" Iota's second said after he took down a walker with his battle axe, a massive and savage looking thing. "Don't get carried away you oaf!" Iota shouted from behind me, the two of us had managed to get surrounded by a group of knights with halberds, each of which seemed to follow Nirens own weapon design by adding a gun at the end. "The battle at hand is more important than whether or not you could launch an attack against my father like this before, besides Vanir could have accomplished this without an army I imagine." I said while ducking under a swipe from one of the halberds and swinging Caliburn at the man's arm cutting it off at the elbow. "He could probably take on all these guys by himself." Iota replied, quickly cutting down three more enemies, by now Percival had joined in and helped me deal with my share of the enemies.

"This is taking too long, what if Uther decides to show up at the wrong time?" Iota's second said with some concern perhaps he wasn't such a brute after all. "I doubt he will show himself until he has no other option." I replied while swinging Caliburn, the blade was coated in blood at this point. "Good, then we can raid this places stockpiles and then torch it, draw the bastard into a fight." Iota replied with a grin on her face as our group began to advance on the control center again. The lack of knights meant they were having a very hard time holding every sector still active, that meant they most likely called back all their forces to hold the control center. "Get ready for a tough fight." I said as we turned a corner and saw the last remaining group of loyalist knights entrenched in the area around the entrances to their last stronghold on Remnant.

"Well….shit." Iota said in frustration as a hail of bullets flew in our direction, several of our forces failed to take cover soon enough and paid with their lives. "Malacci try and hit the area in front of the enemy command center!" I yelled into the comms over the gunfire. " _Already on it, Talon wing hit them hard._ " Malacci replied as the sound of bombers began to drown the sound of gunfire, a moment later my ears were ringing from the bombs exploding and wiping out most of the knights firing on our position. "Thanks for the assist Malacci." I said after slowly standing up, the lack of bullets said enough. " _Not a problem sir, the air seems clear and most of our forces are reporting all clear, looks like this place is done._ " Malacci responded, making me smile slightly. "Good, let's start raiding those stockpiles, I want this place torched within the hour." I responded, taking the first shaky breath in a long time, hopefully this could draw father out of hiding.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

I walked into my room and tossed myself on the bed, panting hard and taking a moment to look at how much more muscle my body had gained during my recovery, Talia was a monster when it came to physical training apparently. "I feel like death walking." I said to myself before softly laughing, if anyone tried to fuck with me now they would be dead men in a couple of seconds. "Might as well get changed into those new clothes Talia got me." I said while slowly getting up out of bed and heading to the chair she had left my new gear on, after picking those up I went over to the bathroom and got undressed so I could shower.

"Ah that feels nice." I said with a smile on my face as the hot water soothed my body. After a while I finally stepped out of the shower and dried myself off, my long hair was the only problem I had. "Hey Lirril are you done?" Talia asked from the other side of the door. "Yeah, I'll be out in a moment." I replied while getting dressed, taking a moment to look at the new gear, it retained my usual bird theme while also adding new pieces of armor that covered my arms and legs as well as my torso, all of it was lightweight but I could tell it was sturdy enough to stop one of Nirens armor piercing bullets. As for non metal parts of clothing Talia had them fix my coat and add more of a feather design in the leather.

"That looks good on you." Talia said to me when I walked out of the bathroom and began to head over to the table where I had left _Garuda_. "Thanks, so what did you want to talk about?" I asked her while turning around and seeing her own new gear, Oblivion was strapped to her back but now rather than her old clothes which had been ruined by the Grimm who cut her across the back, she was wearing a dark brown leather jacket with some fur around the neck and a pair of pants that seemed to match the coat in color, she still wore the boots but now she had added some chainmail around her hips and over her shoulders as well as some belts around her waist as well. "Trying to impress Niren?" I asked after taking a moment to see her new gear. "I might be…." Talia said with a small smile on her face as she thought about Niren. "Anyway the others should be up here soon to discuss our own move, Mordred sent a message saying that his father is finally on the move apparently, vanir and the others are already on their way back to his fleet." "It's about time we got to do something, I'm sick of waiting." I said with a grin, seems like Vanir's bloodlust was rubbing off on me.

Me and Talia had to wait another ten minutes until we heard a knock on the door "Hey can we come in?" Rennic asked from the other side. "Yeah sure, we aren't doing anything weird." I replied from my seat, a moment later Rennic and Torque both walked in, I was impressed at Rennic's choice of gear, rather than wearing his normal comfortable looking clothes and keeping his hair covering his entire head Rennic had donned leather armor with chainmail covering the stomach and shoulder pads as well as his forearms and shins, _Magna_ and _Carta_ were both strapped to his hips and he had shaved his head to have a mohawk, he also had warpaint on his face. "Well….that's new." Talia said, stealing the words from my mouth. "What? This is what the people from my village would wear if they had to fight in the old days before Huntsmen, it's meant to show how serious I am about the coming fight, and besides Torque is wearing the same stuff as me." Rennic replied with pride in his own heritage, at this moment Torque walked in wearing gear roughly the same as Rennic's, only lacking the chainmail, his own weapon _Kronus_ was in his hands, unlike Ruby Rose's weapon it couldn't fold up given that it was more or less just a savage looking blade attached to a metal pole.

"Well now that everyone is here we can make a plan." I said calmly while pulling out a map so Talia could tell us our destination. "Mordreds message said that they had just finished torching a base controlled by the knights a fair ways from the Mistral coastline, he wanted to resupply before the big scuffle and hit a floating base pretty hard, it was the last stronghold the loyalist forces had apparently." I looked at the path Talia had laid out on the map using some red tiles that we had on hand for this kind of stuff. "So all we have to do is take a Bullhead to his location and meet up with his forces before the battle really begins?" I asked, trying to keep the questions simple for now. "Pretty much, like I said Vanir and the others had to deal with some stuff in Vacuo but they seem to have it under control now, anyways we should see about getting a Bullhead, it's probably going to be a long trip to the spot they want to meet us at." Talia replied, Rennic and Torque had been silent for the most part. "What do you two think?" I asked, trying to include them. "I'm fine with following your choice here." Rennic said casually, I see why Mithril was picked to be leader over him, he was more of a follower. "The task is simple, we move and strike." Torque said simply. Talia shrugged and leaned back in her chair "Looks like we have a plan then." She said with a grin on her face.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I was using the zoom function on my helmet to get a good look at the area, Niren was also with me using _Gungnir_ to find any hidden soldiers. "Why the fuck is Atlas here?" I asked him quietly after I got a good look at the woman in charge of the operation below us. "Because they don't know our plans since we never made contact with them." Niren replied, switching something on his scope. "Damn them." I said while taking another look at the area below us, Mithril and Nexus were waiting at the first floor of the building we had been sitting on the roof of at the outskirts of the city, after Niren told me about the result of the raid the specialist had launched on the knights base we had lost any hope of getting those ships, the loyalists went and blew them up before the Atlas forces got inside. "Hey look over there, new contacts looks like the local police." I said after spotting a group of vehicles moving into the area and a large number of police SWAT teams getting out of them. "Fuck, it's that police girl from before." I said after seeing one of the police walk up to the woman who had been looking at the surviving knights.

"Goddamn is she somehow related to you?" Niren asked me when he started to look at both of them, I wasn't able to see their features very well from this distance but Niren had given me a good description, they were both faunus and both had ears like mine. "Doesn't matter, they picked a fight with us." I said while standing up and moving to the stairs leading down. "We've been spotted." Niren said with a note of alarm as he quickly got up from his belly. "How?" I asked, more concerned than him. "Alice Greywater must have some good senses to notice me looking at her." Niren said as we quickly went down the stairs. "Then we don't have much choice." I said, drawing _Gram_ and grinning beneath my helmet. "Never a dull moment." Niren replied, trying to sound cheerful.

"What the fuck happened?" Mithril asked me when we reached the last floor, lights were getting close to us at this point. "Alice is better at noticing snipers than I thought." Niren replied before me, earning a frown from Mithril and a confused look from Nexus. "Get ready to fight, the bitch has brought the local police as backup." I said while walking up to the door. "Here's the plan, Vanir can act as the vanguard while you and Nexus sneak out the back and get those knights out of there, I can support him from here if he can keep them focused on him." Niren said, a simple plan that we could carry out with ease, we also didn't have the luxury to think up something better. "Fine, just don't die." Mithril replied while she and Nexus began to leave "Just like old times eh?" I asked Niren while slowly opening the door. "Yeah, except this time we won't have a ship to back us up." Niren replied with a chuckle as he flipped a table and began to set up.

"Freeze!" A synthetic voice said while trying to shine a light in my eyes, the helmet was stopping most of it though so I could still see things just fine. "It's a little warm to do that don't you think? Ah what am i saying, you're a dead robot." I said while swinging _Gram_ in a wide arc and cutting through all the robotic forces that Alice had decided to send in first "WEAKLINGS!" I shouted while tearing through the forces before me, that she would send machines which bleed hot oil and coolant instead of warm blood had somehow pissed me off beyond anything Mordred had ever done. After a few minutes of swinging I finally came to, surrounded by the wrecks of several dozen mech units and covered in oil. "Give me something decent to fight you bitch!" I shouted across the distance between me and Alice. A moment of silence passed before I heard the sound of vehicles moving up. "Good." I said in savage joy, it had been too long since I got to fight something. "Vanir, let's move up on these guys!" Niren said while running up to join me in the circle I had created. "Why not?!" I said while slowly starting to move forward, my armor was heavy compared to Nirens so movement was a bit more difficult.

"Come at me!" I shouted before rushing at one of the cars moving towards us and swung _Gram_ downwards on it's hood, flipping the vehicle and listening to the men screaming in terror, Niren had simply decided to shoot the tires out from under them and let them sink into the soft sand in front of us. "Keep pushing." Niren said while cutting down a group of mechs, keeping pace with me for a while until being forced back by a larger group of mechs while I kept carving a path through them, this time feeling blood hit my face as _Gram_ cut through flesh and bone. "Come on give me something good to fight! These smallfrys ain't enough!" I shouted, letting my other half slowly start to take over, reveling in the feeling of slaughter and combat. As if in response to my challenge two Paladins nearly crushed me after charging up to my position, I only grinned maliciously "Good." I said while raising _Gram_ and charging them.

I ducked under the swing of a Paladin and swung _Gram_ at the joint connecting its forearm to it's upper arm, grinning as I heard the thud of metal hitting the ground, as I kept moving to avoid being hit I noticed another metal fist coming in very fast, I barely had time to use _Gram_ to take the worst of the blow and get sent flying backwards, hitting the ground a couple of times before regaining my footing. "Not bad." I said while the two mechs took up a position based more around supporting each other "It won't save you though." I said while feeling a jolt of electricity running through my body, the Hades had been building up a charge for a while now and I was ready to release it. I began to advance slowly, aware of the cracked ribs that the second Paladin had given me, my own anger fueled the other half and I raised the _Hades_ , energy arcing on the fingers and palm, it was overcharged and overclocked perfect conditions for dealing with Paladins if I fired it in a large beam. "Get down Niren!" I shouted a moment before I let the built up energy go a massive red beam engulfed the Paladins and several groups of smaller mechs and troops, the sounds of their deaths were enough to send me over the edge and let the other half take over soon I was just a laughing mess on the battlefield, enjoying my killing spree and smelling the carbon in the air.

"You bastard!" A woman shouted before several bullets slammed into me, my aura actually flickering as it struggled to stop them. "Well well, if it isn't the top bitch." I said, feeling my anger at the woman who had told the police I was a kidnapper start to boil over. "You just killed a lot of people for a group of known terrorists, you better have a damn good reason." She said as I turned and she leveled her gun, I only chuckled while raising _Gram_ "You see they had some ships I needed, but you just had to go and fuck that up didn't you?" I said while trying to get an idea of how hard it would be to stop a bullet like this, my mind switching between me and the other one at random intervals. "What did you expect me to do? Let them continue to operate?" She asked me, I shook my head, trying to hold control for a little bit "Didn't you hear the news? The Knights are about to make some big changes, those ships were needed for that purpose you are a specialist aren't you?" I said, my personalities switching during the sentence briefly. "What?" She said while I kept shaking my head "It's...so...hard...to...FOCUS!" I shouted, the other half finally breaking through and forcing me to charge at her, swinging Gram like a madman and dropping my aura, more than a few of her bullets hit me, I didn't feel them though, only a bloodlust I didn't even know I had. "MOM!" Someone shouted before I felt several bullets hit my head, the helmet keeping them from killing me, I soon found my eyes drifting close for a moment.

"Urgh…" I said while slowly standing back up, my helmet was crushed on the right side. "Motherfucker…." I said while piercing through the damaged metal with the Hades and grabbing the other side with my left hand, a moment later I had the damned thing off my head it was ruined and nothing was really going to save it. "Damn i really liked that one too." I said while looking for _Gram_ and Niren. "Mom are you okay?" A girl was asking someone, now that the other one wasn't trying to make me kill everything in a ten mile radius I could actually process some things better. "I'm fine Sif, just a little frightened is all." The woman said, she had fallen on the ground during the fight, I remembered that much, I would have run her through had the girl not shot me.

"No…." The woman said, a moment later I heard the sound of a gun's hammer being pulled back and the bullet was sent out at a very high speed, i barely managed to raise _Gram_ and block the entire clip she sent my way "Woah, calm down!" I shouted while falling down to a knee, my semblance had taken more out of me than I thought apparently. "That gun hits like a mother." I said before coughing some blood up and chuckling "Looks like Niren was right, you do look like me." I said before standing up using _Gram_ as a support. "What do you mean?" The woman asked a moment before the clouds were blown away by the wind and the moonlight gave them plenty of light to see me clearly. "It can't be….Vanir is that really you?" The woman asked as I slowly made my way over to them, the smell that was so familiar to my memories was filling my nose now " _Damnit i just called my own mother a bitch._ " I thought to myself as i fell down and clenched my stomach, those ribs were becoming a problem now.

"It can't be...you disappeared so many years ago I thought you were dead." Alice said while crawling over to me and touched my face, just running her hands along it, feeling the scars and bones. My head suddenly began to pound as memories finally started to come back to me after so long.

 _I stood in the doorway with my father's sword in my left hand, a group of men had walked up to the door with weapons in their hands. "Wheres your parents boy?" One of them asked as I held up the sword "Go away, there isn't any money here." I said defiantly, only earning a chuckle from the men before they tried to force their way in, a moment later on of them had a blade sticking out of his gut and fell to the ground dead, I pulled the blade out and moved to engage the other men, the fight went to the backyard as I fought them off, I was aware of the trail of corpses I had left and felt sick because of it._

 _After a few more minutes of fighting I tripped over a rock and hit my head on the hard ground, a moment later one of the few men left was on top of me, hitting me in the face and chest over and over again. "You little fuck! I'm going to make you pay for their deaths!" He shouted after grabbing me by the hair and lifting me up to look at the bodies "Go to hell." I said quietly before coughing up some blood. "I'm going to enjoy this." He said while drawing a sword and preparing to slit my throat. "That's enough." A woman said a moment before he suddenly stopped moving his blade. "L-lady Morgana! I just finished subjugating him, he put up quite the fight." The man said with fear as he was allowed to let his sword drop from my neck. "What did I say about killing my subjects? What was it again? Oh yes that's it… never again." The woman said before he was grabbed by two more men and brought before her. "Please don't kill me...I'll do anything-!" The man pleaded before a staff ripped through his chest. "I told you.. Never. Again." She said after pulling the staff out of him and walking over to me, kneeling down and running a hand along my face. "Poor child, left to fend for yourself by your parents, don't worry I'll keep you safe now." She said, her eyes glowing purple for a moment before my eyes drifted shut._

"Vanir what's wrong?" Alice asked me with a worried voice at my sudden cringing from the pain. "Nothing..I just remembered everything I had forgotten." I said while breathing heavily and slowly reaching out to hold my mother's shoulders. "It's been so long, you look so much like your father." She said while hugging me tightly. The other girl walked up to us and just sat down "Mom what's going on?" She asked in confusion "That's what I'd like to know." Niren said while walking up using _Gungnir_ as a support, his leg was held in place by a splint. "What's happening is that I've finally found my mother you twit." I said with a chuckle before holding my sides in pain. "Gah that fucking hurts." I said before earning a chuckle and slap on the back from Niren, who just let himself fall on his back. "Please to meet you Mrs. Greywater, my name is Niren and I've been keeping your son alive for the past few years." Niren said from his position on the ground. "You have my thanks for that Niren." Alice said with a smile on her face as she looked over at him. "Wait..son? Whats going on now?" The girl asked in even more confusion. "You remember your brother, how he fought those people off?" Alice asked her, it took me a second but I finally recognized the girl in front of me. "Sif…. you've grown." I said with a smile of my face as I reached out to rub her head with the _Hades_.

"What did they do to you?" Alice asked me with concern, finally noticing the fake arm and reaching out hold it. "This wasn't caused by them, you can blame a Deathstalker for my new arm." I said with a smile, remembering the joy I felt when I killed that one, damn thing took an arm after all. "And you can also thank me for fixing him up, damn fool can't keep back in a fight, it's his semblance after all." niren said while sitting up. "Well then, hopefully we can get you some help for that now." Alice said kindly while holding my hand with both of hers. "I can't stay, not for long anyway." I said while gently pulling my hand away. "What do you mean, of course you can?" Sif said quickly, not thinking about just who our mother had fought only a few hours ago. "Those men you fought, their the ones who took me and Niren and I have to finish the war we've been fighting against them for the past couple of years." I said while standing up, I could hear the sound of a Bullhead and reached for _Gram_ , quickly sheathing it while helping Niren to his feet. "Really sorry about this but we do have to go, perhaps after this is over he can come visit." Niren said as the Bullhead quickly arrived and a door opened and two ropes dropped out for us to climb up with. "Vanir! Get back down here now!" Alice said as Mithril helped us up into the bay "Sorry mother, but when I do come back I'll introduce you to Mithril!" I called down as the door closed and we left the two of them behind. "You have some explaining to do Vanir." Mithril said a moment before i turned around and felt a fist hit my ribcage, disturbing the cracked ones I had gained.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Lucas Darklight**_

I sat in the troop bay of the Bullhead, my greatblade _Moonlight_ sitting on my lap with it's edge freshly sharpened and a simple helmet that did not use the technology of the more modern one the rest of the Knights wore. I had finally been permitted to exact vengeance on the traitors to Uther's cause after their attack on one of our few remaining bases, as such a small outpost Mordred had set up to relay information was my target.

"Lord Darklight, we've reached the position that you specified, are you certain that you do not need support on the ground?" The pilot said after I felt the slight tug of the Bullhead stopping midair. "No, wait for my command to engage them from above this will be a trivial task." I replied before donning my helmet and jumping out of the open bay doors, leaving the twenty men who had insisted on following me to this battle in the Bullhead.

" _Very well sir, if you need support Shadow Wing will be there._ " The pilot said to me over comms, a moment later the Bullhead had returned in the general direction of the corvette we had left from but an hour ago. I only grunted and began to head towards the base, not looking forward to the steep climb up the small mountain it had been built next to.

After another hour of climbing and killing patrols I finally reached a spot that gave me a good vantage point, there were few anti air guns to cause any problems for my men should I feel the need to call them in. "Shadow one, you may perform an airstrike, they have minimal defense." I said quietly over the comm channel. " _Confirm order._ " The pilot said calmly, though I did detect his joy at getting to be helpful to my mission.

After a few minutes of waiting the sound of engines was filling the air, the bases searchlights began to scan the sky, only to be darkened by the bombs dropped by the Bullheads. "Hit the wall nearest to my position." I said before getting up to be as close as I could be when a hole was torn through it. The sound of the bombs was like thunder as I charged across the area between me and it. Soon after I reached the point that marked halfway the wall had a decent chunk torn out of it., enough for me to get through anyway.

 _ **Malacci**_

I had come to this relay to receive a priority message from Niren and Vanir, instead I got forced into a battle with none other than Lucas Darklight, the master swordsman who was responsible for Mordred and Vanir's skill with the blade as well. To be fair the man knew how to make an entrance, and my semblance had provided me some foresight of how this battle could conclude, it wasn't perfect and gave me multiple outcomes, but at the least from those outcomes I could find a way to win without dying or being roughed up to badly.

"Stop right there." One of my men said while pointing a shotgun at the silhouette of Lucas, his armor seemed archaic with the bits of white cloth over his shoulders and upper torso and tied around his waist, ending at one of his ankles, I knew underneath was the simple steel colored armor he wore, mastercrafted by the best smiths in Vacuo. "I will not do as you say traitor." He said before burying his blade in the poor man's shoulder.

"Fire!" I shouted before he seemed to cut through my men like they were nothing more than Ironwoods pathetic robots. "Damn." I said after feeling his blade at my neck, the man may have been old but he certainly didn't move like it, I didn't even have time to reach my weapon. "You serve Mordred directly yes?" He asked me, only earning a slight nod. "Good, send a message to him to come here, Uther has a message he would like delivered." Lucas said, his voice calm yet filled with killing intent.

"Fair enough." I said, before he pulled his sword away from me and sheathed it, most the guards were dead and my men had been slaughtered so far this simple delivery was going to shit.

 _ **Lucas Darklight**_

I sat waiting for Mordred to arrive, his second in command was locked inside of the server room, I had no interest in destroying everything here, it would have wasted a precious resource.

The wait seemed to take hours longer than I expected it to, Mordred must have taken the time to actually make a plan rather than simply attack. "Uther, what are you planning?" I said after drawing _Moonlight_ and letting it build up a charge, the blade was heavily infused with dust meant to enhance my own semblance as well as give it some special capabilities.

Before I could do much else the sound of a Bullhead caught my attention, the child had finally arrived. "Now we see how far you've come Mordred." I said to myself before standing up and planting _Moonlight_ in the ground in front of me, the moon itself still shining brightly.

 _ **Mordred Pendragon**_

Uther had made a mistake in sending Lucas to deliver his message, not because of the fact that while he was my enemy I still felt respect for him, but because Lucas would more than likely try to kill me first, at least I had Percival with me, and Niren was on his way with Vanir and the other's they had brought along with them.

"Sir, there's one contact at the base." The pilot said to me as the Bullhead began to slow down and hover, I frowned before donning my helmet, Lucas seemingly killed every one of my men save for Malacci who had sent a simple message "Darklight attacked, kept me alive to send message. Help." Normally I would find some joy in the fact that for once Malacci got himself stuck in a situation like this, except this was Lucas who attacked and not some simple bandit.

"Let us out here, Percival, get Malacci out of wherever he is and join me in combat against Lucas after. I can't hold him off for long." I said as the door opened and the I felt the wind tug at my overcoat, Percival only nodded in response to my orders, "Let's go, return when I say so." I said before jumping out of the Bullhead and landing on the landing pad with a loud thud, Percival managed to actually dent his own section of pad.

"Mordred, you seem well." Lucas said from across the landing pad, the side that had some actual grass for him to plant his sword and look intimidating. "Aside from losing an eye to Adam Taurus I am doing quite well." I replied dryly, he knew damn well about my actions against the man I once called father, my hand slowly reached for _Caliburn_ as I prepared for his inevitable attack.

"Hm. and yet he didn't kill you, some of the Knights of the Round think it would have been better for you to die at Beacon." Lucas said casually, trying to get me to let my guard down. "What do you want Lucas? Aside from killing my men that is." I asked, my own patience with the man starting to run low as I drew _Caliburn_.

"First, to deliver a message and second, to see if you have to strength to even defeat me." Lucas said before finally drawing his own weapon and assuming a stance that held it over his head, leaving multiple areas on his body open to attack. "About time we got to this part." I said before assuming a stance meant for defense.

"A foolish choice." Lucas said to me before moving forward at a speed he shouldn't have been capable of and swinging at me, I barely managed to block the strike aimed at my left side. We began to trade blows after that, Lucas somehow moving at speeds that prevented my semblance from accurately predicting his movements. "You still can't keep up with such a simple speed? Even Vanir was able to fight on equal terms with me like this." Lucas said during one of our prolonged clashes as we tried to battle for the advantage.

"Shut up about Vanir and his skill with a blade." I said before finally managing to force him back a little, I followed up with a counter attack and was rewarded with a few hits on the old man, watching his aura flash with satisfaction. "You're pride is still wounded when Vanir or Arthur are brought up then, good to know." Lucas said after avoiding several strikes from me, and forcing me back to defense.

We continued to fight for what felt like hours as I tried to keep him from catching on to my simple plan. "You've improved slightly Mordred, and I tire of fighting you alone at this point." Lucas said to me simply as we circled each other, both of us breathing heavily. "Fine then, how about this?" I said before watching Lucas quickly avoid being smashed into the ground by Percival's hammer.

"Oh ho, so you did come up with a plan to fight me then." Lucas said after blocking a few shots from Malacci, who was standing on the top of a building with his weapon in it's pistol mode. "Did you really think I thought I could win on my own?" I asked with a shrug of my shoulders before charging to attack him in sync with Percival, we had begun to work on coordinating attacks after Beacon, it seems a good idea at the time and was serving us well now.

"Now this is interesting." Lucas said after our attack had some effect on him, nothing major but a few shallow cuts here and there. "Percival, let's hit him again." I said, trying to fight down the building confidence that we could beat him so easily. "I've got your back boss." Percival replied as we slowly began to circle Lucas.

I moved first, attacking Lucas from his front while Percival moved in from behind to try and hit his back. "Hmph." Lucas said after jumping and avoiding Percival's attack, which meant I would be the one to receive a hammer to the gut. "How predictable." Lucas said while I struggled to stand back up, my stomach felt like shit and my head was spinning.

"A joint attack will only work so many ti-" Lucas said before being interrupted by several bullets that exploded on contact from Malacci, causing some serious damage to his aura. "Now!" I shouted to Percival, who rushed forward and hit Lucas several times, eventually sending him flying across the landing pad several feet. "I'm sorry… what was that about a joint attack working only so many times?" Malacci asked before helping me to my feet once again.

"A good effort, a shame that it will be wasted." Lucas said as we heard the engine of a Bullhead fill the air and started to move to take cover from the incoming airstrike. "Chew on this bastard!" A woman shouted, drawing Malacci's and my attention to the Bullhead as it came over the mountain a chaingun already spun up and firing on Lucas's position. Filling the air with dust and shrapnel, I noticed that the air was also cooler where the shots had hit, and a bit of moisture was building up on my visor. "What?" I said a moment before someone jumped out of the Bullhead and hit the ground with an axe, causing the air around her to freeze.

 _ **Talia Halcyon**_

I felt like jumping out of a moving Bullhead was a bad idea, even if it was going to be really fucking cool however seeing the smug bastard get frozen in a layer of ice was satisfying, soon after my own entrance Rennic joined me while Lirril looked for a place to land our ride.

"So...how's that for dynamic?" I asked him as he walked over to the knight who was locked in ice, his arm still blocking his face to try and stop any bullets. "Pretty good, but hitting him with something a little more flashy would have been better." Rennic replied after turning around to give me a cocky grin. "You can say that next time you take out a knight." I replied, looking around the base that we honestly stumbled onto.

"About time some help arrived." Someone said from across the landing pad, I looked over and saw Mordred and one of his lackeys rubbing some ice off their gear, a moment later they were joined by a much larger one that I recognized from Beacon. "Hey big guy." I said after waving to him, he only nodded at me before taking a look at my handiwork.

"Lirril get over here." I said after we all heard a sharp crack from the landing pad, the nice statue I created was starting to crack, and not in the comical sense either, the guy inside it was actually moving and breaking himself free. "Well shit." Rennic said as he drew his blades, I raised Oblivion and prepared to fight for the first time in months.

The old man was taking on the seven of us like we we're just some grunts, his defense was seemingly impenetrable and his style of attacking was able to put us all off and on guard, it was a familiar one though. "Now this is a fight! Three is interesting but seven is truly entertaining!" The knight shouted after we all tried to attack him again, only to be beaten back. Again.

"Who the hell is this guy?!" I asked with a fair deal of rage behind a swing from my axe after Rennic and I moved to attack him again. "My name is Lucas Darklight, and you will die." He replied before tossing both of us back again, After I got back up I noticed that his sword was glowing.

"What's that about?" I asked Percival while pointing at Lucas's sword. "Oh shit." Mordred said a moment before Lucas laughed and raised his sword in the air, the damn thing was only glowing brighter now too.

"It's time we finished this fight." He said calmly before unleashing a torrent of light that turned everything a bright white, drowning out every other sensation I felt, other than pain.

 **I want the torture of figuring out how I want stuff to be in this short story to end, hopefully I can get it down to at least five more chapters, thanks for reading.**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Vanir Argent**_

I looked at the floor for a few seconds after seeing the base engulfed in a large white dome and growled in rage. He was here and was beating the shit out of my friends, even the mental image of Mordred being beat to a pulp was pissing me off.

"You doing ok Vanir?" Nexus asked me after my vision started to clear, I was noticing that my semblance was actually getting harder to control after the last time I used it in Vacuo, my arms felt like they were on fire for some reason, probably just bloodlust.

"No. I want to rip that fucker to pieces." I said coldly as I unsheathed Gram and felt the Bullhead slow down at a mountain peak. "You're going to have to run the rest of the way." Niren said as the three of us disembarked from the Bullhead and began to run down the cliff, making sure that we didn't trip and enjoy a nice long fall down the gravel.

My head was filled with conflicting thoughts, some of them had me sparing Lucas if I could beat him, others were stained in blood. At the moment these thoughts were the only thing keeping me from just leaving the other two behind and trying to kill him on my own.

"Wait for me to attack then move in, let Lucas think it's just me and Niren here." I said after we reached the base and hid behind a wall, Nexus and Mithril both nodded as I stepped out into the ruined landing zone, I saw Mordred and Lirril propped against a wall, from the look of it he had caught her in the initial shock wave from his semblance.

"Ahhh good, a real challenge." Lucas said to me before tossing Talia over to me, catching her barely gave me time to keep my throat from being slit by Lucas in fact I was still holding her while his blade was drawing a thin stream of blood from my neck.

"You want a fight old man then let me put her down." I replied, my rage was bubbling to the surface now as I thought of the pain he inflicted. A moment later Moonlight was drawn back and I placed Talia on the ground and picked Gram up, assuming a stance meant for attacking, Lucas did the exact same thing.

After trading blows with Lucas for a while I came to realize his strikes weren't as strong as I remembered. "What's wrong old man? Too weak to fight like you used to?' I asked after our blades clashed and we struggled for control over the battle. "No. My semblance leaves me somewhat drained, you seem to have improved though." Lucas replied, like some kind of instructor despite not being mine for several years now.

"Then that'll make this easier." I said before forcing him back with several strong blows, all of them wild and easy to block, but filled with a fair amount of force and meant to exhaust the defender. "Very good!" Lucas said to me, seemingly pleased that my attacks had forced him back and actually drew a bit of blood from his left arm.

"Yes, even without your right arm you still manage to impress me Vanir, a shame that I have to kill you." Lucas replied, his eyes glowing a bright white as I realised what was about to happen. "Lucas you bastard-!" I shouted before feeling several sharp objects pierce my body, my shoulders and knees had been run through by shafts of moonlight created by Lucas's semblance.

"After I kill you Vanir i shall leave my message for Mordred and be on my way, this has been a good night indeed." Lucas said as he stood over me and raised he sword, ready to run me through. "Now!" I shouted through the pain a moment before Lucas was forced to block several shots from Gungnir and a large number of attacks from both Mithril and Nexus.

"Heh, not bad at all." Lucas said after I stood back up, his focus on keeping me pinned was broken from the sudden assault. "Like I really planned on taking you by myself Lucas." I said, my voice was started to crack a little, my throat was dry after having breathed from my mouth for so long.

"Of course you wouldn't, lets end this then shall we?" Lucas asked before holding his sword aloft, building up another charge. "Nexus!" I shouted before rushing Lucas, we had to stop him before he did what he did to the others to us. "Now...Die!" Lucas shouted just as the two of us reached him and brought _Moonlight_ down on top of _Gram_ and enveloping the world in white.

My eyes snapped open and I drew in a quick breath, Lucas had used his semblance and sent me flying into a wall that collapsed from the force of impact. I pushed the debris off my chest and stood up, feeling my limbs burn from the exertion of fighting Lucas.

"So you survived." Lucas said from behind me, I felt his blade press against my back and chuckled at the familiar situation. "Go on then old man, kill me." I said, wondering if I actually wanted to die, or just to see if he would try it.

Lucas removed his blade and chuckled as he returned it to the large sheathe on his back. "Perhaps next time, whenever Mordred wakes up tell him that Uther waits near Menagerie." Lucas said before the air began to be blown in a large circle from his own Bullhead. I turned around and looked at the old man walking up the ramp that had lowered and took note of the laser dots on my chest.

"Why tell us that?" I asked over the wind with some confusion on my face. "Because, Uther wants to finish this sooner rather than later, and I have some plans of my own I must attend to." Lucas replied before the bay door closed as his Bullhead took off towards the general direction of the nation.

"Menagerie huh?" I said to myself as I looked around at the base, mostly for everyone else but also to see the overall damage from the fight, needless to say it was bad and Mordred would have some words for it later. After a few moments the blood stopped pounding through my ears and I could hear the comm channel beeping as Niren tried to contact me.

"What is it?" I asked him as I began to find members of our own team as well as Mithrils, smiling a little after propping Lirril and Talia up against a wall, it was good to see them again. "Why did he leave?" Niren asked me calmly, I could hear the Bullheads engines spinning up from here and knew he was on his way.

"Bastard was delivering a message for Mordred,we may also have an ally or two on the inside as well." I replied, finally finding Mordred and lifting a sheet of metal off him. "You have my th-" Mordred said before seeing just who had lifted the debris off him and saved his skin from Lucas.

"Vanir." He said calmly before going to find whoever else was here with him, I still hadn't found Rennic or Torque yet and Nexus had just stood up from his own pile of debris, he had used himself as a shield to keep Mithril safe from harm. The base was a wreck now that I had a chance to actually look around.

After another five minutes of searching I finally found Rennic and Torque, the two of them had actually managed to take cover before my fight with Lucas. "I was getting fucked up by Lucas and you two choose to hide?" I asked, a grin on my face as the two of them chuckled at my comment. The three of us returned to the ruined landing pad and weren't surprised to see Niren was already there and Mordred was looking pissed off as usual.

"So Lucas might be willing to aid us?" Mordred asked Niren as we approached, his hand was on his chin as he looked over at Niren, who only shrugged and cocked his head at me. "I wouldn't go that far, but from what he said it's possible that we could get him to join us." I replied with a shrug before walking into the Bullhead, at this point I was tired from both a long flight and fighting Lucas.

"We can discuss this later, I think everyone deserves some sleep at the very least." Lirril said from her position by Talia, I was starting to get comfortable and ready for the usual air sickness that came with Bullheads so I was starting to not pay attention to their conversation anymore. "I agree, we need to plan for the coming battle anyway." Mordred replied.

 _ **Uther Pendragon**_

I stared at the holographic display and frowned, that so many would join with Mordred was infuriating to say the least. My attention was draw away from the display by Lucas coughing from behind me.

"Was your mission successful then?" I asked him, my voice sounded weaker than a few years ago, the first split between our forces was one thing, the deaths and betrayal of my family was another and I now found my own age taking it's toll.

"Yes my lord, should the traitor act on my words we should meet them in battle within a few weeks." Lucas replied, I frowned at his use of the words my lord when he addressed me that was something I had always taken issue with. "Lucas, you do not have to call me that, honestly I dislike it." I said, feeling the general state of my mood improving at my old friend acting so seriously.

"Should I have kneeled?" Lucas asked me with a serious look on his face, the white hair and age lines made him look like a headmaster at a school for children. "No Lucas, you have never had to kneel before and I would never expect it now." I replied, trying to keep myself from chuckling at his reactions.

"Gather the remaining Knights of the Round, we need to prepare." I said to Lucas after I listened to his report, the fact that Mordred had allied himself with the Maleficar was of little concern to me, what truly mattered was that he could bring himself to work with Vanir, the one responsible for killing his brother and his mother. "Very well, though I detest those greenhorns." Lucas said before leaving the bridge of the ship, I only smiled as I realized I shared his view on them.

An hour later I sat at the chamber used for meetings between the twelve commanders of my forces and listening to the younger knights doing exactly what annoyed the older ones, boasting of their victories against the Grimm and other forces, simple enemies who have never faced the Maleficar or Mordred's forces.

"We should hunt down the traitors and kill them before they have a chance to find us!" One of the younger knights shouted at Lucas, who had his arms crossed and leaned back in his chair, popping several vertebrae in his back before responding. "That is what Mordred would want us to do, splitting our forces so that he can further weaken us through destroying or capturing ships and supplies." Lucas replied, I nodded slightly, Lucas was right about that, while Arthur was very direct with his combat Mordred had always shown cunning in combat, looking for a way to undermine his opponents chances of victory and the like.

"We could easily crush whatever ships he has at his disposal, the majority of the heavy ships are under our control." Another one of the newer commanders chimed in, the knights of the round had been split on the issue of waiting and thinking like Mordred or striking and being direct like Arthur, this split had been an issue ever since Arthur's death.

"Lucas has the right of it, let Uther's plan to bring Mordred to us play out." Another of the older knights said, earning approval from both sides, they normally agreed with plans that I had made before we had meetings like this.

"Enough of this argument over whether luring them out is a sound plan or not." I said while standing up from my chair and activating another holographic display, this one showing Mordred's fleet, we had several stealth drones keeping an eye on it and the increase in ships was of some concern.

"Mordred has both the Maleficar and free captains aiding him, if he could have anymore time to prepare I'm certain that he would even have some ships from Atlas in the mix." I said while showing the ships that belonged to the free captains in a yellow tint, they made up at least a third of his fleet and we would not be able to turn them to our side.

I saw the shocked reaction of the younger knights after my reveal of the situation, clearly they had failed to keep themselves updated on the situation. "Lucas has given Mordred cause to move now as opposed to when he thinks himself ready." I said calmly as the image changed from ships to a map of Remnant that marked our location just south of Menagerie and Mordred's location, which was currently moving towards us, a smile formed on my face as I realized he took action.

"We should begin preparing our forces." Lucas said after a moment of silence from both sides, the others began to agree with him. "Dismissed." I said simply after a while, my mood had definitely improved after this, in fact I felt my hand falling to my waist and rubbing the pommel of my weapon for once the idea of battle was something I couldn't resist.

 _ **Mordred Pendragon**_

I stood on the command deck of the Temeraire and sighed, the meeting had gone poorly, the Maleficar wanted to try and weaken Uther's forces further by drawing more of them out and eliminating them before fully devoting time to engaging his main forces, My forces however agreed that direct action was now required, Uther would not send any of his remaining forces to hunt for us.

"Mordred, we should arrive at the coordinates Lucas gave us within two weeks there's plenty of time for planning and preparation in the meantime." Malacci said to me from his spot and the war map before bringing up a holographic map of Remnant.

"Good, update the timetable I've set up for the free captains to do joint exercises with our fleet, we need to instil a sense of teamwork between our forces." I replied, fighting back a yawn and feeling like some sleep would be good for me.

"Yes sir." Malacci replied to me with a wave of his hand as I turned to leave the bridge and head to my quarters for some rest, I had been up for nearly thirty hours at this point and felt like death.

After I reached my quarters I took off the armor I had been wearing and placed it on the armor rack set up in one corner, I set Caliburn on my bed and took off the white trench coat that I had on my shoulders and rolled my neck, feeling the vertebrae pop and the pressure release. "I should take a shower too." I thought to myself before heading into the small bathroom and doing so.

I practically threw myself on my bed and groaned as my body screamed from the fighting against Lucas, he was still able to take on eleven people at his age and rarely show signs of slowing. "This fight is going to be hell." I said to myself before letting my eyes close and sleep take me for once.

The next day had me start by looking over a list of drills Malacci had managed to get the free captains to agree to and a list of requisitions made by the Maleficar, the number of heavy machine guns and Bullheads was of some concern to me. After that I was allowed some breakfast which for the most part was spent with Vanir and Nirens friends and them, minus Vanir who according to Niren had taken the time to go to the training deck.

"Might be a good idea to keep your distance for a while. Vanir's been having trouble with his semblance recently." Niren said to me after he had finished his own food, at this point he was just there for the company.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, some concern about that given how Vanir's semblance had caused an entirely new personality to be created, one that had a thirst for blood and death that could barely be sated.

"Back in Vacuo he nearly killed his own mother." Niren said to me, earning a number of shocked gasps from the others and a spit take from Talia. "What?" We all asked in unison, earning a few looks from the others in the mess hall.

"That was the strange part about our time there, apparently his mother is still alive and he has a sister, though he did try and kill them when he started to struggle with keeping himself from going berserk." Niren said before drinking whatever he had in his cup.

My eyes widened a little at that and I nearly choked on the piece of toast that was in my throat. "What?" I asked him, trying to keep my voice down as Niren looked at me with his usual stoic expression.

"Like I said, his family is still alive but he nearly killed them, his semblance is starting to become a problem." Niren said, taking another sip from his glass and also giving me a look that said what he thought about the matter.

"Vanir needs to find some way to get his act together." I said before reaching for the glass of water in front of me and taking a drink from it, earning a nod from Niren in response.

"How do you plan on getting that to happen?" Niren asked, by this time the mess hall had gone silent, Nirens team had left as well as most of my knights and the Maleficar so we began to have our conversation in a normal volume since there were less people to worry about when Vanir might end up going on a killing spree.

I put a hand on my chin for a moment before answering him with a question. "Where is Vanir right now?" I asked, feeling that it would be best to see what he would have to say about the issue. Niren pulled out his scroll and began to type, a moment later he held it up for me to read.

"Still on the training deck. Good at least if he goes ballistic we can keep him contained there." I said calmly, already set up a plan in my head in case Vanir decided to actually try and kill me. Though before heading to the training deck I would need to retrieve _Caliburn_ and my armor from my quarters.

"This is going to go south fairly fast." I said to myself after stepping out of the lift and walking into my quarters to get my gear. Vanir was in no way a pushover when it came to combat, and I knew well from the last time we had actively tried to end each others lives that he would do whatever he felt was required to win when his semblance was in control.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

I stood at the firing range on the training deck and began to reload _Chirada_ and _Suparna's_ clips, these last few hours had been tense, Vanir had been in a foul mood since I arrived on the deck with Talia and the others and had only been tossing people out of the sparring ring, never seeming to be satisfied with his long winning streak.

"Lirril Evergreen right?" Someone asked from the lane beside mine, drawing my attention from my thoughts to them. The person who had spoken was one of Mordred's men, he was a slim man with a large pistol in one hand and a clip in the other, the white armor on his body was covered in marks from blades as well as claws and fangs. I felt like I had seen him before but could not place my finger on it.

"Yes, who might you be?" I replied, trying to sound less nervous than I actually was at the moment while aiming down the range and emptying my clips into the mid range targets, following his lead to begin shooting.

"Malacci, nothing after my first name really so don't fret over it." He replied, I noticed that his shots were all aimed at the furthest targets available, and all of them had hit the bullseye.

I began to change the distance I aimed for as well, wanting to see just how effective I was at different ranges. "Not bad." Malacci said after seeing my results, no bullseyes but at the least I was able to hit the second ring.

I was about to respond to his praise when I heard the sound of several bodies hitting the floor and Vanir shouting from the exertion of doing so. "With him around it seems like we won't have to worry about being overrun, just caught in the bloodlust." Malacci said to me after we both stopped to watch Vanir take on ever increasing numbers of opponents, both flesh and metal.

"He's been like this since last night." I said, feeling worried that Vanir might end up hurting himself as well as others based on what Niren had told me the other night and this morning, Vanirs second personality was starting to become more and more dominant over the one we had become used to seeing as of late.

"Mordred said he had a plan to get him to calm down a little, not sure what it is yet but we might be seeing it soon seeing as he just walked into the room." Malacci said to me and pointing at the person who just entered the training deck. I noticed that he was walking with a slight limp, probably from the other night, and that one of his eyes was different somehow.

"We should just keep our distance if he's going to fight Vanir, it might get messy." Malacci said to me as we watched him approach the ring, a moment later Talia, Mithril and the others walked over to me, the room had gone mostly silent while Mordred walked up to the ring and watched Vanir thrown another challenger out of it, this one was a short woman with a large katana like blade.

"Come on give me a decent fucking challenge!" Vanir shouted, by now most of the people who had been watching had figured something was wrong with how much Vanir was fighting and had already decided to keep their distance.

"Very well then." Mordred said, making everyone look at him and my own heart skip a beat, I knew Vanir was dangerous like this, but I also knew Mordred had been the object of and obsession for Vanir since I had met him an obsession based around slaughtering every Argent Knight he could find.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I had just heard Mordred say something when I noticed he was standing in the ring, my breathing was heavy from having fought nonstop in an attempt to keep myself in check, that had failed on the other me's part and now I finally had a chance to kill that bastard.

"I've been waiting for a chance to gut you." I said, not bothering to assume a stance after Mordred stepped into the ring and took up one for himself. The other me had taken too light a stance on what to do with Mordred, for once we had a chance to kill him after the battle of Beacon and he chose to work with him instead.

"I see then, so he was trying to keep you down with some form of combat." Mordred said, taking note of the fact that my other self had actually thought to keep me down through tiring me out.

"Hard to keep me down when I've been trying to get out for years, especially now that I can kill you and get some justice for what you and your family did to me." I said, feeling my muscles tense up and I prepared to strike first.

Mordred only glared at me as he blocked my sudden strike, somehow keeping it from throwing him back. "You put me through hell for years!" I shouted as we continued to trade blows. Mine wild and heavy, his controlled and light, meant to try and bleed me instead of kill me. "So do me a favor and just die!" I shouted again after being pushed back to the side of the ring.

"I'm afraid I can't do that until my father faces justice himself, something I aim to gain for the Maleficar, the families of people like you and Niren, and lastly for myself." Mordred replied, after I had turned the tide of the battle and put him on the defensive with several overhead swings. I had begun to get sick and tired of his calm demeanor and the false kindness he was showing to me. To _US_.

"You expect me to believe that after all the years spent running through the sewers to escape your men and the police of each city?! The years spent fighting and being covered in blood, torn apart and put back together because of what your father did to me?!" I shouted, at this point Mordred was starting to slow down, blocking my attacks was beginning to take it's toll on his own stamina. I grinned maniacally at the thought of finally breaking his aura and running him through with _Gram_.

"Then take your vengeance out on my father!" Mordred shouted, making me stop for a moment before having my legs swept out from underneath me and seeing the tip of a halberd stuck in my face. The rage I felt at Niren's interruption was almost as much as what I felt towards Mordred.

"You bastard!" I shouted before feeling several probes enter my shoulder and electricty begin to course through my body, a moment later I blacked out from it.

I sat in a dark cell looking at the bloodstains on the wall in front of me. It was a familiar place given how many years had been spent in there after Morgana had taken me from Sif and Mother, and now my other self had left me here like I had tried to leave him. "So that's how it is." I said after hearing footsteps outside of the cell. I looked up to see myself from a few years ago, still wearing that damn white trenchcoat and the plain metallic armor, it had never been painted and bore many scratches and dents from the battles I had taken part in.

"Comfortable?" He asked me with contempt at how the tables had been turned. I remained silent for a moment before answering him with a nod saying no. Perhaps it was because of the place he chose to put me or perhaps it was because I felt a dull ache in my left shoulder. "Of course you aren't."

"What happened? You should be controlling our body shouldn't you?" I asked, the confusion plain on my face at the fact that he was here and killing something or someone.

"Niren tased me, so until we come to an accord I imagine he will continue to do so whenever I wake up." He said, shrugging his shoulders and popping his neck. I noticed that he was in a way, the younger version of me given the fact that some of the scars on my face were not present, and he did not have the _Hades_ in place of his right arm.

I looked at him with amusement, apparently he hadn't seen that coming despite how much time he had to plan out an attempt on Mordred's life. I began to chuckle before saying "You really didn't expect Niren to keep you from killing Mordred?" at this point I was begining to laugh at how stupid he was in his attempt.

"Shut up." He said, throwing himself against the bars and shaking them his own anger plain on his face, for once I felt disgusted with the only emotion I had felt until I had been forced into attending Beacon.

"Fine you grouch, lets try and figure out a way to work things out between us without being too cliche then." I said, feeling like this was repeating a scene from a movie that involved two halves of a whole or something.

"Well at least we can agree on keeping it form being like that." He said with a smile on his face.

An hour later and we had figured out most of the problems we had with each other, things like aggression and the like, the only major thing was which personality would continue to exist and the main one. "It should be me given the fact that I am the personality from when we were captured by Morgana, to top it off you're way to bloodthirsty to be able to function." I said, keeping myself direct and honest in this case.

"Why should I disappear? I'm the only reason you survived all those years." He said, bringing up a fair point with that, but still not convincing enough to get me to let him stay like he is.

"Why not just take the best parts of both of you and add them to me?" I said after we kept that argument up for a while longer, I felt some confidence when he raised an eyebrow.

"While you might be a bloodthirsty killer you do have some good qualities, namely the fact that we don't feel pain when you're in charge and can see how a battle is going." I said, his attitude was horrible but other than that the capabilities he had in combat were pretty good.

"I would still disappear." He said, though this time it was less angry and more scared sounding than before.

"Think about it for a second, you want to go on living as things are, you want to stay with Mithril and the others, but the way you are it's not going to happen. Ever." I said, keeping the pressure on he knew that Mithril wouldn't want to be with someone who put killing above his loved ones.

"I know." He said, his face showing worry.

"Then you know why you can't continue to be the way you are, and why the main personality traits have to be mine. Do it for Mithril at the least." I said, feeling sorry for my other half because of the harsh reality facing him.

He was silent for a while before finally answering me with a sigh "Fine you win. I'd rather keep some people close than risk killing them."

I nodded before standing up and feeling a bit of sunlight on my back from the window in the cell. The other me reached for the keys to the cell and stuck them in the lock before opening the door and holding out a hand to me. "Bah, can't believe you got me with a cliche thing like friends." He said with a grin on his face.

"Say what you want, but sometimes that shit helps people see reason, I'll try and keep you alive in some way though, I promise." I said, accepting his hand and being blinded by my eyes opening up back in reality.

"He's waking up." Niren said, I felt something heavy around my torso and noticed the Hades was missing.

'About time, we need to know who's in control." Mordred said, he seemed irritated for some reason, there was no way he was actually worried about my well being.

"How about you get these chains off me instead of worrying about whether or not I'm going to try and kill you, besides I finally fixed my own problem." I said, surprising myself with how blunt I was being.

"His eyes are blue, though his way of speaking is definitely different than before." Niren said after taking a look at my face and looking at Mordred, who only nodded. A moment later Niren was removing the heavy chain from around my torso.

"About time you figured that out, I was worried things would get out of hand." Niren said to me after walking over to a table and bringing the Hades back to begin reattaching it.

"So long as he can fight and discern friend from foe that's all that matters." Mordred said, I could tell that he was angry about whatever I said to him during our fight, those memories were still foggy, though from what I could gather they weren't the friendliest of words.

"Whatever I said during that time Mordred, i'm sorry." I said, feeling like that wasn't enough but that it was all I could do at the moment. Niren finished what he was doing and let me move the Hades around to get a feel for it again. "Don't worry about it, you only spoke the truth about how you feel towards me and my family, we wronged you greatly and can never right that." Mordred replied, walking over to me and holding out his hand, wanting me to shake it.

"Then you at the least can be forgiven Mordred." I said, grabbing his hand and shaking it. Taking note of the look on his face going from that usual and annoying stoic expression to one of shock at being so easily forgiven for everything he had done to me. "Now if you two are done being all lovey dovey we can get some work done before this last battle takes place." Niren said, earning glares from both of us before he began to chuckle.

"Some sleep wouldn't be too bad." I said with a shrug as I began to walk out of the room, for the first time I noticed the heavy gatling guns at the door and the barricades on the other side, a room meant to hold some very large Grimm.

"You can sleep after we have a briefing on the situation." Mordred said casually, taking note of my silence towards the place they had taken me to. "We wanted to make sure you wouldn't be able to hurt anyone if you woke up before you got that sorted out." He said in response to it, only earning a nod from me, I understood his reason and accepted them, I would have done the same to myself.

"Let's just get this meeting out of the way." I said as we waited for Niren to open the door, Mordred only nodded and the three of us left that room behind forever.

 **Soon I will be done writing this and can get started on stuff that's taking place during Vol. 4 since I finally figured out how I want things to go for once.**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Lirril Evergreen**_

I stood listening to Mordred and Vanir argue about the possible outcomes of plans and rubbed my temples, they had been at this for hours and given Vanir's new personality after he somehow got the other one to see some reason things weren't going so well.

"Attacking Uther's flagship headon is not just suicidal but also very foolish and what he would expect of us given how few ships we have!" Mordred shouted, drawing my attention back to their argument. "Besides none of our ships can go up against it in a straight up fight, the damn thing is massive and covered with weapons all along the hull." Niren said, he brought up a hologram of Uther's ship, it looked very different from the usual warship that Atlas used, it seemed more like a floating hexagon with several layers devoted to different purposes.

"I never said that we should try and attack it with all our ships at once, there are other ways to bring that behemoth down." Vanir said, he began to highlight several areas on the ship, I recognized the engines were one of the targets he picked. "The _Albions_ weapons would annihilate anything we send to hit those targets though." Mordred replied, I kept studying the ship and looking for some way to get past all these issues that kept being brought up.

"Then what about luring them into a trap? Let Uther think we've realized the futility of the fight and are willing to surrender?" Percival asked, I agreed with his idea if only for the fact that Uther was absolutely unwilling to discuss peace with traitors, though this was based on the information Vanir and Niren had given me and Talia years ago. "If father wasn't going to ignore us and then open fire that would be a good plan, we have no other option but to fight through his fleet and then try and bring down the _Albion_." Mordred said, I kept looking at the ship as everyone continued to argue, for the most part Talia and most of Mithrils team were staying silent since we didn't really understand half of what they were talking about.

"You keep saying that we have to bring down your father's ship in order to win. Why not just find a way to capture it?" I asked finally, having gone through every other idea I could come up with. Mordred and the others all looked at me after my sudden interruption. "I would agree that taking the _Albion_ would ultimately benefit us in the long run if it wasn't filled with several thousand knights that could flood the hangars and win through attrition." Mordred said, his eyes narrowed while he tried to shoot down my argument.

"Then why don't we just aim for the deck above or below the bridge and just ram the ship there? It would allow us to avoid the hangars and a large portion of knights, it might even help take out some of their defense systems." I said, highlighting the decks I had in mind. The model labeled them as the CIC and the drone control decks, I figured that without one of those decks the ship fight around the ship would be somewhat easier for our side. "Not a bad plan Mordred, you should listen to her." Vanir said, agreeing with me for once and helping to alleviate the growing headache.

"I could order the crews to fortify the front of the ship for ramming as well as handling all the concentrated fire that Uther will no doubt aim at us." Malacci said to Mordred, my idea was simple enough but apparently the only thing they hadn't thought of. Mordred only sighed in defeat as everyone seemed to start planning around the idea of ramming one of those decks. "Since everyone seems to agree with Lirrils idea about simply ramming the _Albion_ …..it seems I have little choice but to roll with it." He said, a small smile on his face as well.

As everyone kept discussing what to do Vanir and Niren walked over to where the rest of us had been standing after the hologram changed from that behemoth and to the one we currently stood on. At this point we couldn't do very much, while Vanir and Niren counted as commanders in the Maleficar they didn't command any troops from their own faction. I guess we counted as their troops though given the way the other Maleficar talked to us.

"Well done, if you didn't come up with a simple plan Mordred would've argued for hours." Vanir said to me before slapping my back with his mechanical arm and sending me forward a little bit. "I agree, sometimes it's best to go with a simple plan when it seems all other will fail." Niren said while bowing his head slightly. Talia decided to join in at the point by wrapping both her arms around Vanir and Niren's necks and dragging them down to her level before saying "Well she was picked to be team leader for her skills at planning! As well as being the only one with the patience for any paperwork."

After another half an hour of idle chat we finally decided to leave the war room and get some rest for the night, as we were leaving however I felt a gauntlet wrap around my left arm and turned to see Mordred looking confused, like he was trying to figure out what he should say. "Could I talk to you for a moment? Someplace a little more private?" He asked me, I looked at the others who had stopped to look for me and were now watching and saw Vanir grinning in a strange fashion. "Sure." I said, smiling and trying to make it less weird for him.

The two of us walked for awhile until Mordred finally stopped at an elevator and pressed the button to call it. "Only a few of the lifts on this ship lead to the captain's quarters, the only place I can have a moment or two to myself really." Mordred said after seeing the confused look on my face. "What exactly do you want to talk about?" I asked him as we stepped into the elevator and he pressed another button.

"I wanted to talk to you for a while after Beacon, there are some things that have me confused that I need another person's perspective on, so I figured that talking to the person who is the cause of it would be best." Mordred said as the elevator came to a stop, it took him a while to come up with that apparently.

After the door opened and we stepped out into the hall I noticed that there was only one door at the end of a short hallway, most likely leading to Mordred's quarters. "So what exactly is the problem?" I asked after we walked down the hall and entered his room, it was fairly spartan in terms of furniture, a single desk and chair as well as a large bed that didn't look too comfortable. "Take a seat." He said while motioning to either the bed or chair before walking over to a small kitchen area. " _So he can prepare his own food in here if he wants._ " I thought to myself as I walked over to the chair at the desk and sat down in it, the bed would probably be far more comfortable but it might also make thing odd for him.

"I don't know if you drink with Vanir or not. Anything in particular that you would like?" Mordred asked me, drawing my attention from looking at the room a little more. "Just some water is fine." I replied, my attention being drawn to a picture on his desk, it looked like a picture of his family, Mordred looked to be five or six and his mother's hands were on his shoulders, she was smiling and looked truly happy as compared to when we fought her two years ago, even his father looked pleased, though I didn't recognize the older boy standing next to Mordred.

"Ah yes...my family, back when Arthur was alive and father was happy, and mother was still sane." Mordred said, drawing my attention and handing me a glass of water, I noticed he had a glass of some kind of alcohol. "Despite the fact that Vanir has been involved in two of their deaths I still somehow feel no rage towards him because of it. Odd." Mordred said before taking a drink from his glass. I remembered Morgana's state before her death and figured that what happened was a mercy for her.

"Though they aren't the reason I wanted to speak with you." He said, leaning forward in his seat and giving me a look that said I would be there for a while.

 _ **Niren Argent**_

I sat on my bunk with my eyes closed, trying to calm my nerves after another long day of watching for any of Uther's forces, and once again seeing nothing. " _What is he planning?_ " I thought to myself as I tried to run a few scenarios through my head to try and figure out what the man could gain by keeping us on edge until the battle finally began beyond simply making some of us lose sleep.

As I sat on my bunk I heard the bulkhead door open and close, by the sound of the footsteps Vanir had just returned from his own turn of standing watch for any signs of Uther, more than likely he had found nothing of note.

"Any news?" I asked him while opening one eye to look at him, he had just unsheathed _Gram_ and was performing his weekly maintenance of the blade, already running the whetstone along the length of the blade to sharpen the edge. Vanir looked at me with a frown before giving his reply.

"None, seems like Uther wants to keep us waiting and on guard until he decides to try and kill us, don't see much point in it though if he has a ship the size of Patch." Vanir said calmly, echoing the same opinion as the rest of us. Why would Uther wait so long to attack when he could easily win if he committed his flagship to battle? "Perhaps he isn't even in this part of the world and had Lucas give us false information?" I asked, though I already knew the answer, within the last week radar had picked up an object roughly the size of the Albion several times, though we had yet to see it.

"Where are the others?" Vanir asked me, pointing at the empty bunks that Talia and Lirril would usually occupy. "Talia is talking with Mithril and the others, wanting to catch up apparently and Lirril is once again with Mordred talking about who knows what." I replied, honestly confused at the sudden friendship she had developed with Mordred given how the last few years of her life went while he was trying to kill us.

"Who cares? If Lirril wants to be his plaything let her, after all she is the only one of us who isn't in some kind of relationship yet." Vanir said, sliding _Gram_ back into its sheath and laying down on his bunk, his eyes closed and his mechanical arm resting on his chest while the organic one was behind his head. I chuckled slightly at his words, Vanir showing concern for Lirril's romantic life was an odd thing that had only recently began with the change in his personality and mental state.

"That is very true, she always did put her studies first at Beacon." I said, laying down on my own bunk and deciding to get some sleep before tomorrow. "Goodnight." I said simply before drifting off to sleep myself.

The next morning went about the same as any other morning aside from heavy cloud coverage keeping me from keeping an eye out for Uther and his fleet, this would be the perfect chance for him to launch an attack if he felt the need to decimate a fair portion of our already small fleet.

"This is just getting ridiculous." I said to myself before hearing the door open and moving my arm so that Talia could set a mug of tea down next to me, the steam rising from it was already starting to fog the window up as well, showing how cold it was outside from the altitude we were at. "Thanks." I said as she sat down in the chair next to me and leaned on my shoulder.

"You're welcome." Talia replied with a yawn, so far she was not accommodated to being up so early in the morning to sit and keep an eye out for a fleet, granted it was technically smaller than our Uther still had not only the Albion but also the last three heavy cruisers that we hadn't destroyed in the last few years, as well as at least ten corvettes and five frigates, the larger ships on their own could probably turn the battle in his favor.

"After this is said and done I feel like we should go to Menagerie or Atlas, take a break from the fighting if we can and just relax." I said after checking both the radar and the air around us in the glass bubble we were sitting in. Talia moved so that she could look at me, excitement in her eyes at the thought of for once not fighting something other than the occasional Grimm or White Fang, the Knights had so far kept the four of us from doing much in the way of fun during the three years we had all known each other.

"That would be great! I've always wanted to visit Menagerie, and if we went to Atlas we could go see my father and the rest of my family too." Talia said with a large smile that only seemed to be getting bigger the more she went on about what the two of us could do in both locations. I felt myself starting to smile as well, the usual calm I presented slipping away at the reaction Talia had to my idea made me feel warm and in a mood to smile I suppose. "I think that settles that then, now we just have to decide where to go first." I said after she had calmed down a little and was no longer about to send one of her firsts through the window in joy.

"Alright, which would you prefer?" She asked me while I put a and on my chin, keeping my attention divided between her and the monitors as I thought about which place I'd honestly prefer. "Well given that I'm pretty sure I'm cold blooded since you know… I'm part lizard.. Or something. Menagerie doesn't seem too bad, on top of that I'm afraid of meeting your father at the moment, he seems like a good man it's just, given how you are when you're overjoyed I can't help me feel fear for my spine at the thought of him actually liking me." I said while rubbing my neck and feeling a dull ache from all the times Talia nearly strangled Vanir and I when she was in a good mood and wrapped her arms around our necks, she was nearly as strong as Vanir.

"Yeah…. Dad might be a little too glad that I finally found someone who can stand all the hugging, and I'm pretty sure that we have bear faunus in us too." Talia said with a smile on her face, at least she agreed with me on why I didn't want to head over to Atlas first, though there was a more personal reason that I did not want to, mainly the difference between social classes in that frozen kingdom always left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and the urge to kill a few of their upper class families, men and women who had built their fortunes off the backs of the people in the classes below them, then sit and gorge themselves on fine foods and wines. An utterly despicable group of people whose influence seems to run deep for no reason other than to run deep.

I turned my attention away from those thoughts and back to figuring out a plan for after this war was over with Talia, my mood once again going from dark to bright as I felt some joy in both the fact that soon I could just take a moment to sit down in the shade and not feel worried about whether or not someone will try and run a few pounds of steel through my gut.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I stood on the command deck of Mordred's ship watching the holographic display showing ship movements, mainly keeping an eye on the free captains ships they had been running drills at Malaccis insistence since they arrived.

"Is there a problem with the drills Vanir?" Mordred asked me after he finally noticed me glaring at the display. "No, just trying to run some numbers through my head." I replied while turning to face him, Mordred had just passed one of his aides a stack of papers and walked over to the projector to see what I was looking at. "What kind of numbers?" He asked me after a while, keeping his eyes on the holograms the entire time. "Mostly how many ships it would take to kill one of those dreadnoughts Uther has with him." I replied, already feeling a sour taste in my mouth at the thought of fighting one of those with ships that were lightly armored, I knew Niren would say something like Hunters can kill a Goliath with enough numbers or something.

Mordred was silent for a few minutes as he most likely ran the numbers himself, it was a tough thing to do given the reputation the free captains had for outfitting their ships with equipment that wasn't entirely on the up and up. As well as the fact that they had not given up all the information on what their ships had on them, according to the captain they had decided would represent them "Better to keep them in the dark just in case there's a traitor amongst them." It was really a stupid idea to have at a time like this seeing as how Mordred had completely purged his forces of any and all loyalists, Malacci was good at the whole master of shadows thing. "It would take a large number of our forces to bring down the three dreadnoughts under my father's command. That being said I'm certain Malacci can come up with something that can deal with them." Mordred said after what felt like an eternity of silence from him, he always was patient when it came down to planning. "Have fun with that then, I think i'm gonna go check out the Bullheads you let the Maleficar use, heard Iota had some interesting things done to them." I replied after stepping away from the projector and Mordred, who only gave me a nod as I left.

After about an hour of walking and waiting for lifts to take me down to the hangar level of the ship I had finally reached one of the three hangars that Iota had taken over, the place was a mess of tools and armor plating, as well as weapons and crates full of ammo for the weapons mounted to the sides of the Bullheads. "Vanir!" Ares shouted from across the hangar after I had walked halfway across it, ducking under moving machines the entire way. "Couldn't you guys keep this place clean? It's a fucking nightmare trying to cross it." I said after finally reaching Ares and hearing him chuckle, it was a familiar sound that brought back some memories of when we first left the Knights and started this whole conflict.

"Not really, too many parts need to be swapped out on these Bullheads, Mordred only had a few models that would work with Iotas plan for them, and they were all covered in rust and bullet holes, I'd say they haven't been used since the Great War." Ares replied as we walked up to the control room and watched from the landing at the top, several groups of Maleficar were working and at least five Bullheads, replacing the old armor with newer plates and once again adding several different types of guns on the sides, usually ranging from rotary machine guns or grenade launchers to some other type I had never seen before.

"Noticed the new pieces eh? Iota convinced Mordred to loan us the design after we took out the last groundside installation owned by Uther, well seaside I guess. Anyway the things are supposed to fire rounds from coils that speed it up or something, I think Iota wants to use them to take down the smaller ships at least so that the free captains aren't bogged down when it comes to engaging the dreadnoughts." Ares explained after noticing my attention to the weapons.

"So, she wants a couple of ship busters to give Uther a scare? Might give one a try if we don't get killed before then." I replied, my face slowly changing from its usual frown to a grin as Ares once again laughed and slapped my back, nearly knocking me off the landing and back down into the chaotic mess of machines and parts below. "I'll put a word in with her later, for now how about you help us with some of the repairs? That arm could be useful." Ares said after I regained my footing, I only held up the _Hades_ and let some energy spark along the fingers and palm, it could probably weld some metal together, I had never really tried it before given the fact that most of the time the beam just melted it. "Sure, why not?" I said casually, if it didn't work out I could just use a blowtorch like the rest of the work crews.

After a few hours of work the Bullheads were finally outfitted for combat, at least to the way that the Maleficar fought, i'm certain that Mordred would have some very good points about how bee stings don't always kill a Goliath but chances are that Ares wouldn't care too much. Besides the Bullheads had new armor and weapons so it wasn't like we would be going in without a chance to avoid being shot down by the slower cannons on the Knights ships, it was the little bastards that we had to worry about. "Guess there isn't much to do now except go back and wait." I said to myself before feeling the entire ship rock and saw several of the others in the hangar get tossed around, as well as some of the old armor plating we had just removed.

"What the fuck was that?!" Ares shouted from the landing at the control room before the ship violently shook and I heard a familiar sound, several dull thuds and gunfire. "About damn time." I said, my eyes turning yellow and my hand reaching for Gram's hilt. Uther had decided to finally attack. A few seconds later and the hangar doors were blown inward and several dozen Maleficar were sucked out into the sky beyond, and several Bullheads flew in to drop off troops.

"Ares! Let's take em out!" I shouted, fully drawing Gram and rushing the first group of knights I saw, in only a few swings the massive blade cut through about twenty of them, the other group managed to get away from my reach and were now engaging the remaining Maleficar as a few more Bullheads started to line up and start to drop even more knights in the hangar, as well as putting some suppressing fire on me. "Fuck." I hissed after taking cover behind some armor plates that hadn't been sucked out of the hangar earlier. My left shoulder was feeling kind of numb and blood was trickling from several bullet holes.

"Talk about flashy entrances eh?" Ares said from beside me, I guess the both of us had similar ideas. "Yeah you could say so, shame I don't have much in the way of ranged weapons that don't destroy half the room." I replied, feeling the bullets being pushed out of my shoulder and shuddering. "Here take this." Ares said, handing me a pump action shotgun. "Thanks." I said before leaning out of cover and firing a round, the slug traveled a short distance before burrowing into the chest of a knight and exploding, I smiled as I realized that Ares had loaded it with his preferred kind of ammo, explosive Dust shells.

"Be sure to return that if you can, for now let's give these fuckers the good old Maleficar welcome." Ares said while walking up beside me, his own axe turned into it's shotgun form and most likely loaded with the same kind of ammo. "You got it." I said, feeling the bloodlust overflowing and seeing a few knights running for cover from the sight of both of us.

 _ **Niren Argent**_

I pulled the trigger on the control of the AA gun that I had taken control of to try and deal with the Bullheads trying to enter the hangars as well as just dealing damage to our ship. "How's it going down there Talia?" I asked after I ran out of ammo and waited for the gun to reload.

"Oh just peachy!" Talia shouted, I could hear the noise of _Oblivion_ cutting and freezing her foes. "Gun's loaded sir, give them hell!" The crewman below me shouted before turning back to the fight between Talia and the other knights defending me and the gun. I started firing again, dealing with the swarms of interceptors and Bullheads that had started to fill the sky again, I also saw several ships from both sides crashing into the waves below us. "This is bad…. What is Mordred planning?" I asked myself before seeing several interceptors coming right for me. I began to fire at them only taking down three out of six before they began to launch missiles and I ran out of ammo. "Shit shit shit." I said before jumping down the ladder and feeling the flames at my back and feeling something hard hit the back of my head.

"Niren… Niren wake up!" Talia said, my ears were ringing and my vision was blurry, I also felt like my limbs were made of lead. "Damnit Niren wake up I need some help!" Talia shouted after a few more minutes of me trying to get my bearings, the AA gun was destroyed and the ladder leading up to it was closed off, most likely to stop the flames from killing us all. I reached for _Gungnir_ after I found it leaning against a wall and shakily stood up, aiming the weapon at the enemies furthest from Talia and pulling the trigger, "Heh, even with a concussion I'm still a good shot." I said before coughing some blood up. " _Maybe some internal bleeding too, wonder if this is what Vanir deals with each time he gets himself thrown against a wall?_ " I thought, taking aim again and pulling the trigger until I ran out of ammo and had to reload.

"Niren, you ok?" Talia asked me after things finally calmed down and I found the nearest wall to lean against and slide down, breathing heavily and feeling exhausted for the first time in a long while.

I nodded while she let me lean against her shoulder, I felt my aura already working on mending the more manageable wounds on my body as we started to move down the hall, at least we still had the gun crew with us, nice lads all of them. A shame half of them would most likely die.

"Good we need to get moving then before more of those guys show up." Talia said as we reached a bulkhead and I began to work on getting the security lockdown on this part of the ship to be lifted. Several dull thuds told me that more knights were on the way. "Handle them Talia." I said while feeling a rib be forced back into place.

"Got it, alright keep your weapons trained on the hall and hope that they don't decided to land right on top of us." Talia said to the crew while pulling out some Dust vials that had a bright blue color to them.

"Hope Vanirs having a better time than we are." I said to myself as the sounds of boots running down the hall grew louder and I felt the air grow colder after Talia tossed a vial of Dust behind me and created a barrier of ice to give me some cover.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

I leaned out of cover and fired down the hall at the large group of knights that had been keeping Mithril and I pinned down for the last few minutes, there was an occasional thud from the door behind us as Nexus and the rest of MNTR fought more knights on the other side. "Clean shots, only about ten more left." Mithril said from the other wall that she was hiding behind, her eyes a milky color as her semblance allowed her to see through the hull between us and them, though I imagine that all the metal made it somewhat difficult to determine what was just armor on a human and a wall. "This is just getting ridiculous." I said to myself after ducking behind the barricade that had been set up by some knights who had managed to get stuck on the other side of the door behind us.

"I'm not disagreeing with you but at least they aren't brave enough to enter the killzone." Mithril said before leaning over the top of the barricade and pulling the trigger on the pistol she had picked up from one of the knights who had actually got in range to attack us with a sword. I heard two thuds as her targets fell to the deck while making a gurgling noise. "Alright, eight more." She said after looking around, I nodded and checked my own weapons to see how much ammo was left in them at the moment. "Almost out of ammo." I felt some frustration at that, I had packed enough of it to last a year and within two hours had gone through most of it. My train of thought was broken when two things happened, first the knights decided to roll a grenade down the hall at us and second was the door opening and Nexus and Rennic pushing us down and taking the brunt of the blast from the grenade.

 _ **Mordred Pendragon**_

I stood on the command deck and watched the movements of the fleets as they engaged each other, father had caught us off guard but we had a plan for if he tried something like this. "Mordred, Percival is reporting heavy fighting in the aft hangar." Malacci said after the ship rocked from the impact of a small missile. "Who's able to assist?" I asked after ordering several ships to engage one of the dreadnoughts, it's captain had decided to break formation and I intended to take it from father, it's firepower will be of use in engaging his flagship.

"Some Maleficar, namely Iota and some of Nirens team." Malacci replied, I frowned after seeing several ships crash into the waters below and large numbers of Grimm start to arrive, mostly Nevermores. "What about Vanir, isn't he on that deck?" I asked before relaying another order to the fighter wings to engage Uther's men first and allow the Grimm to slaughter his forces, we need to secure our own ships anyway. "Yes, but he's currently holding back loyalist forces in the hangar that you let the Maleficar use. "Send reinforcements there and make sure that Vanir knows the situation, I want him in that hangar ASAP, notify his team as well." I said, smiling as my men report the dreadnought has been captured and see it begin to move towards our fleet under escort of five frigates.

"On it." Malacci said before turning back to his own console and ordering two squads to aid in the defense of the hangar that Vanir was currently in, the man was a vanguard when his semblance was active and I intended to use that to our advantage, by now he was more than likely soaked in the blood of his enemies as well. My attention once again went to the fight before me. "Show yourself father." I said quietly as I scanned the tactical map to try and find his flagship, it was the size of Patch so it wouldn't be hard to find, and yet it was absent.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I leaned against the wall and dropped the shotgun that Ares had given me, I ran out of ammo a while ago and had just resorted to beating the knights over the head with it while also swinging a shortened _Gram_ , "You all right Ares?!" I shout over the sounds of battle and rushing wind, _Gram_ extending to its full length and _Hades_ building up a charge, next time those bastards try and land they would be met by the large beam shearing through their hulls. "A couple of cuts, nothing Iota can't fix up later!" He replied to me as he crushes the throat of the knight who had cut through his aura and took his left arm off at the elbow. "You say that but you're missing a damn arm!" I shout after running _Gram_ through the stomach of another knight and ripping it out through the side of his torso. "Like I said, nothing Iota can't fix up later!" Ares shouts before removing his double sided axe from his back and unleashing a roar that make my ears ring, I can't help but laugh like a madman as I join him in his charge across the hangar, him roaring like a bull and me howling like a wolf.

The knights who had just landed don't know how to handle the sudden close quarters combat they find themselves in as the two of us meet them, the bullheads behind them having been turned into chunks of molten steel falling to the sea below by the charge I had built up in the Hades, I'm only slightly aware of the gunfire dying down as I feel the blood spray across my face, I had lost my helmet earlier but could care less, all that mattered was killing the poor fools who had decided to be a threat to my life. Ares and I move in a strange sort of sync, his axe digging into the flesh the foes behind me while _Gram_ turns those in front of me into nothing more than piles of meat, eventually I realize that there are no more Knights to kill and that the sounds of battle from the air outside the ship have become muffled explosions. Im drawn out of my bloodlust by someone shaking my shoulder, it's Ares.

"What?" I ask, feeling the blood on my face begin to grow cold and looking for something to clean it off with, Ares hands me a shredded banner belonging to one of Uther's men "You alright?" Ares asks me after I finish getting the blood off my face, the rest of me can wait until this is over, assuming we don't end up in the drink of course. "Yeah, still getting used to the whole single personality thing is all, forget that I can go crazy in a fight still." I reply with a sigh, the hangar is secure and now all I feel is tired from the last two hours of combat.

"Don't get too comfortable Vanir, Mordred has a job for you." Ares tells me as a medic starts to look at the end of his left arm, already trying to keep the big man from dying of blood loss. "Better not be clearing out halls." I say with a sigh as I lose a chance to sit down, even if it's for a moment. "The aft hangar requires aid." The medic say after he finishes bandaging Ares arm and begins to work on tying a belt around Ares arm, keeping the blood from flowing for a while. "On it." I say before moving to the only door that I can leave from, which coincidentally leads to the aft hangar. "Just my damn luck." I think to myself as I enter the hall and begin to jog down it.

I pay little attention to the bodies in the hall that are slumped against walls but have to jump over a few in the middle, I slip on a few pools of blood and barely manage to keep my head from hitting the metal deck several times before finally slowing down to a fast walk. "I hate this part of war." I say to a dead knight as I stop at the door that leads to the aft hangar, it's oddly quiet in there and I'm waiting for the panel to reading my handprint. "Not that you can answer." I say as the panel glows green and the door begins to open.

"See Galahad, I told you they would send the Black Wolf." A knight say as he stands over one of Mordred's cronies, Percival. "Indeed Gawain, let us greet him." Galahad says, drawing his blade from its sheath and activating the shield hidden in his gauntlet. "Didn't realize that I was so popular with you Knights of the Round." I say, showing some confidence, I was facing two of Uther's finest and these weren't the youngers members of his personal guard either, they were about the same age as Lucas. "I also see that you still use those god awful titles." I say, a grin on my face as I see both men frown, Galahad's face has an almost reptilian look to it, making the scowl look on a little bit more intimidating than Gawain's. I suppose it doesn't help that he does actually have scales like Nirens. Gawain on the other hand has an avian face, the man is part bird and has a pair of daggers that mimic a Nevermores beaks. And as if to drive the point that they aren't just humans home their armor also mimics the animals they share traits with.

"You have one chance to surrender Wolf." Gawain says to me as the two men start to circle me like vultures. I enter a stance with _Gram_ facing forward, there isn't much I can do to stop both attacks at once besides avoid them however as the two men are moving around. "Why? So Uther can take my head himself? I think I'll pass." I reply, already seeing their attacks coming, both of them try to run me through only for their blades to stop a few inches from each other as I roll forwards and quickly stand to block Gawain's daggers before being knocked down by Galahad and his damn shield. I block Gawain's daggers once again with my right arm and throw him off me before jumping back to my feet and sharing a few blows with Galahad, also taking note of the fact that his shield can take hits from _Gram_ like it's a normal blade that doesn't leave its victims cut in half from one swing. "Lucas taught you well." Gawain says to me after I force Galahad to the ground and he parried the strike I had meant to take the other man's head off with, he spins me around before kicking my back which makes me stumble forwards and away from them.

"Shut up and fight old man." I say, letting _Hades_ build up a charge slowly, so that they don't notice it. Both of them rush me and begin to force me back to the end of the hangar, I'm painfully aware of each cut they make and the silence as their men and Percival's men watch the duel play out. "You are outmatched Wolf!" Gawain shouts as he leaps towards me, leaving Galahad behind to try and run his daggers into my chest. "Am I now?!" I shout before moving to the side and raising _Gram_ , Gawain knows my intent before I let the blade fall, a moment later his face is no longer confident as he see both his arms fall to the ground, I had cut them off at the elbow, though it was somewhat uneven he could no longer hold his blades and he was now on his knees. "I hope that Uther is listening Knight, this won't be pleasant." I say to him before punching his jaw with my right arm and hearing the bone break, as Gawain howls in both rage and pain I shove the mechanical hand into his mouth and grab his tongue. Galahad rushes forward to try and stop me from what I'm about to do, sadly for him i'm the faster.

Gawain begins to choke on blood after I rip his tongue out of his mouth and block Galahad's blade with the _Hades_ "The problem with you Knights of the Round is you talk too much." I say, feeling some joy at the suffering I'm about to cause as I twist Galahad's arm to an odd angle, hearing the bones inside snap and seeing the blood seep out from the lines in his gauntlet. The sadistic grin on my face grows as I hear him scream in pain and I push him to the ground, planting my foot on his back while still holding his sword arm. "Seems like that hurts Galahad, let me show you some real pain though." I say, my voice has become a low growl that the entire hangar can hear. "No…." Galahad says before screaming in pain as I wrap both arms around his and begin to pull, I soon hear the bone and muscles and flesh rip away from the rest of him and after a while Galahad passes out from the pain of his arm being ripped off completely.

"If you can hear me Uther, this is nothing compared to what I'm gonna do to you!" I shout, hoping that the bastard can hear some of his best men be torn to shreds by the same monster he created all those years ago. "I've had my fill of this." I say, pulling Gram out of the deck and cracking my jaw as I force Gawain to his knees. In spite of the fact that I took out his tongue he hasn't passed out yet. "Don't worry about Galahad, You can see him in whatever afterlife you believe in." I say before swinging _Gram_ and taking his head off. I don't even bother executing Galahad, at this point I'm fairly certain that he died from the shock and blood loss. "Now the rest of you have a choice, surrender yourselves to these fine gentlemen, or I kill you like a pack of young beowolves!" I shout to the shocked loyalists, who begin to put down their weapons and put their hands behind their heads, just like Percival and his men had been for the last few minutes.

"I see why Mordred doesn't like the idea of fighting you now." Percival says to me as his men and some backup take the remaining knights in the hangar to the brig. "That was a one time thing." I say curtly, taking note of the fact that my own friends have so far kept their distance from me, and the fact that the battle outside seems to have died down finally, which could only mean two things. "It's too quiet out there." I say with some concern in my voice, sure the deaths of Galahad and Gawain would cause some issues for morale but the battle wouldn't have stopped altogether. I get an answer to my own questions when Mordred's voice crackles over the comm systems "Percival. Vanir, get to the command deck, now." He says grimly as the two of us look at each other. "That can't be good." Percival says to me as I watch Niren and the others begin to leave the now secure hangar.

About a half an hour later I stand on the bridge with Mordred and the rest of the people who hold relevance to the command structure, as well as a hologram of Uther, who has finally put on the armor that I had only ever seen him wear when he was ready to fight. "Father." Mordred says flatly, as though the word seems like a different language to him. "Mordred." Uther says, the rage at the sight before him barely contained. "It's rare to see you so angry Uther." I say, breaking the odd silence between the two of them and getting the man to turn on me. "I will make you pay for what you've done today butcher." Uther says, pointing an armored finger at me. "Like you made me pay for killing Arthur? Like you made me pay for killing Morgana?" I ask, my face remaining even as I stare him in the eyes and see the same emotion I've felt since I regained my own free will. Mordred and just about everyone else is looking at me in shock, aside from Uther, the both of us are staring at each other, waiting for one to give up.

"Uther, remember the reason you even called off the attack." Lucas says, surprisingly calm despite the fact that I just reminded him of the fact that I killed his best student. "Of course." Uther growls before turning to face his wayward son once more. "I will give you two options Mordred, we can end this in the traditional way by letting our fleets destroy each other further . Or we may end this like the knights of old and send champions to fight each other." Uther delivers his ultimatum to us with a cold look on his face. "Give us an hour." Mordred says in response to the rather fair offer. "Very well." Uther says before the hologram flickers out.

 _ **Mordred Pendragon**_

I set down my scroll and pinched the bridge of my nose, during the two hours of combat we had lost sixty percent of our fleet, and father had lost at least the same amount of his own ships, most were destroyed but we managed to capture one out of his two dreadnoughts, the other one was at the bottom of the sea, after crashing into the waters below us a massive Grimm had coiled around its hull and dragged it beneath the waves. "This is the best chance we have to come out of this alive, Vanir's….. Handling of Galahad and Gawain caused Uther to react in a favorable way." Malacci says to the members of my inner circle as they argue about what to do. "Lets not speak of that." Vanir says, I've rarely seen him look so grim.

"I think we should accept his offer, Our fleet is in tatters and if we can kill my father then we can end this before it gets an worse." I say, finally standing up straight and addressing the group. "Uther will send the remaining Knights of the Round at us, Galahad and Gawain were the beginning, He still has enough to cause us all kinds of trouble in a fleet battle. It's better if we take them all on in a smaller battle onboard his flagship, keep them focused on us while the fleet attacks what he has left, they will be without direction from their leaders." I say, trying to keep the reasons behind my choice simple so that we may answer in time.

"Pretty bold, I like it." Vanir says, the first person to agree with my plan as well as the last person I expected to agree to it. The others only nod to show their consent "Malacci, hail Uther." I say, feeling some confidence in our chances for once.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Niren Argent**_

I sat on a crate in the only hangar that could launch a Bullhead sharpening _Gungnir's_ current axe head and checking it's ammo clips. The fight ahead was going to be difficult, despite the ease that Vanir killed Galahad and Gawain with the rest of Uther's commanders would not go down so easily, especially Lucas. "At least it's only seven of them now." I mutter to myself while loading more rounds into a clip that had been empty since the battle came to an end on the ship. "Still have Lucas to deal with." Vanir said after he walked up to me and sat on the deck, his eyes closed and his head leaning against the crate. "I'll leave Lucas to you and Uther to Mordred, those two are fights that you should handle on your own if you can." I say, pulling out another empty clip to begin loading. Vanir chuckles at my calm demeanor given what we are about to do, despite the fact that there are only seven Knights of the Round left we are still taking twelve to face them.

"Ares is going to be pissed that he won't get to come along for the ride." Iota says as she joins the two of us, Vanir hands her a small flask filled with what I can only assume is the medicine mixed with alcohol that he drinks before being shoved into a Bullhead. "He can get over it, besides he already lost an arm, I'd like to see him get through this alive." Vanir says while chuckling and accepting his flask once again, not taking a drink from it though. "Make a recording of the fight for him." I say, already hearing the sound of more footsteps, at least six people. "So are we having some kind of soppy moment or something?" Rennic asks us as I finish my maintenance and slid off the crate, Vanir and Iota stand up and Iota leaves to see what Mordred is plotting. "Only if you want to." I say, my face remaining passive.

"A drink wouldn't be too bad though, we might not make it back." Lirril says, earning a nod from Vanir and the rest of us. I understand the tradition of sharing one last drink or meal between comrades but have rarely had a chance to do something like it. "You got enough in that flask for everyone?" Mithril asks Vanir, once again he chuckles and pulls out a bottle of ale he stole from somewhere. "How did you even manage to keep that thing from breaking?" Nexus asks him in surprise, his eyes most likely showed him all the microfractures in the bottle. "Ancient faunus secret." Vanir says while passing the bottle around after taking a sip from it himself, the others drink from the bottle and by the time it reaches me there's not much left, some took larger drinks than others, in fact Talia, Vanir, Rennic and Torque are all looking like their enjoying the buzz they now have. "You better be ok by the time we get to the fight." I say with a sigh before downing the rest of the bottle and feeling a strong kick, the bottle and its contents come from Hephaestus's inn. "You better have paid him for that one Vanir, you know how much he hates giving away his special stock." I say, feeling a bit buzzed myself now too. Vanir only nods and laughs, the others join in and soon the other Knights and Maleficar in the hangar looking at us all like we were insane or something like that.

"Oh gods their drunk." I hear Mordred say before Vanir walks over to him and shoves a flask in his hand. "Take a drink Mordred and get the stick out of your ass, use it to beat your father to death or something." Vanir says while pushing him over to us, Iota and the other three follow the two of them over to our small circle. "Do we really have to do this?" Mordred asks me, showing some discomfort at the long time tradition of many warriors. "Why not? We might all end up dead by day's end, try and enjoy it a little." I reply, my face starting to split into a small grin. Mordred only sighs before taking a drink from the flask and gagging a moment later. "What was that?" He asks while spitting and trying to get the foul tasting medicine mixed with alcohol out of his mouth. "Medicine mixed with alcohol so that Vanir doesn't carve a hole out of the side of a moving Bullhead." I say before chuckling, eventually the others have taken their own share of the bitter drink and are all laughing, odd how people laugh in the face of death.

"Alright, enough of that we need to go over the plan." Mordred says after we spend another half an hour laughing and letting the drink be burned out of our systems by our Auras. "As you know I no longer intend to take my father's vessel, that being said the only option available to us is to destroy it from the inside, Uther has most likely foreseen this so I propose that we split into three groups to hit three major locations on the ship." Mordred brings up a hologram for us all to see what he wants to do, each time is hitting something crucial to the _Albions_ flight and ability to fight back, as well as containment cells for Grimm. "I figured that the teams should be made up of people who can work well together, to that end I would like for team's LVTN and MNTR to remain as they are, I hope you don't mind sticking with me Iota." Mordred continues, earning nods from all of us, we would work best if we fight with the people we are most familiar with. And the _Albion_ is full of spots we can exploit for an advantage. "What will you call your group Mordred? For the sake of keeping in touch of course." I ask, already feeling like I know the answer to my question. "My team will be referred to as IMMP for this fight." Mordred replies, once again earning laughs from us, though these ones are somewhat grim.

After going over the plan to attack and bring down the _Albion_ we boarded the Bullheads and began to cross the gap between both fleets with an escort of smaller craft that would usually be used to intercept missiles or more commonly Grimm. "Mordred, I want one of those Pikes." Vanir says over the radio channel that we all share. " _If we live through this I'll give you a frigate if you want._ " Mordred says, earning another chuckle from several of us, I'm more focused on keeping eye open for any tricks or traps laid by Uther, he isn't expecting us to fight fair most likely and we would expect no less from him, especially given how many people related to Uther Vanir has killed. "Don't worry about it, though if you have any of those assault bikes I'll take one of those." Vanir replies, I see his hand clenching around _Gram's_ hilt and take note of his own nervousness and breath in relief, I'm not the only one who's nervous about this fight.

" _Remember the plan and strike fast and true, we regroup on the command deck after our objectives are complete. We should only have a brief window to avoid death by drowning, blunt force trauma, or the army of pissed off psychopaths waiting to kill us after they lose control of their ship_." Malacci says, keeping that usual jovial attitude of his the entire time. "Don't forget the Grimm as well." Talia says, earning a bark of laughter from Malacci and the rest of us. " _Alright that's enough, comms dark until the battle begins, may the gods favor us._ " Iota says as Lirril breaks off from the formation, three Pikes following us and three Pikes following the other two Bullheads to their own insertion points. "Now comes the fun part." Lirril says as I stand up and she closes the doors on the side of the Bullhead's hull and Vanir and I prepare the gatling guns on each side, the hangar that we chose would be filled with Knights and Pikes. "Relax we've got this." Talia say, I can't see either of them from the part of the Bullhead that I'm in but I imagine Talia putting on her smile and trying to keep our team's leader from panicking.

"You ready brother?" I ask Vanir, only getting a grunt in reply as he turns off the safety on the gun and the doors slide open once more, I see more than a few surprised Knights faces before pulling the trigger and watching them turned into red paste before moving onto the ammo stores and fuel lines for their Pikes. I can feel the heat from the explosions from behind my helmet "That's right motherfuckers! Burn for every damn day you stole from me and the other kids you took from their homes!" I hear Vanir shouting as he moves the gun to sweep across his side of the hangar. "Almost out of ammo over here!" I shout after a few more minutes of mowing down the Knights who try to engage us, Lirril is spinning the Bullhead as Vanir and I sweep the hangar and Talia fires the nose mounted gun to try and help as best she can. "Same here! Don't need a gatling gun to kill these bastards though!" Vanir says as I take a moment to let the gun cool down, the barrels are glowing bright red from the nonstop fire. I resume firing until I realize that there are no more bullets leaving it. "I'm out!" I shout, stepping away from the gun and pulling _Gungnir_ off my back, feeling the weapon unfold like a staff and loading a clip into it. "I've got your back, Lirril find a clear place to land this bird and join us when you can." Vanir says, he's already drawn _Gram_ and is standing at the edge of the Bullhead's deck, it's stopped rotating and Talia is firing the nose gun at the main entrance whenever some Knights try to enter. "Got it." Lirril says as we both jump out of the Bullhead.

"On your left!" I shout to Vanir before pulling the trigger on Gungnir and watching the head of a knight who tried to backstab Vanir blow up. Vanir in the meanwhile has already turned three more of them into piles of blood and guts. "Nice shot!" He shout before returning to his slaughter, I keep firing at the knights trying to set up for a ranged attack while Lirril is still trying to land the damn Bullhead, at this point I feel like she just want to see the both of us suffer for leaving her and Talia behind. "Mind landing the ship Lirril?!" Vanir shouts as I notice how few clips I have left already from fighting in just one hangar and decide to stop trying to fight at range just as Vanir gets an opening and unleashes a high powered shot from the Hades right at the main door, turning a large number of knights into ash and melting the door itself. "About damn time." I say while blocking a strike from a knight and burying Gungnir's blade in his neck, shortly after Lirril lands the Bullhead and she and Talia join the two of us.

"You know….the plan was to fight through them as a team right?" I say, feeling a little short on breath awhile Vanir is winded at this point, nothing like taking on an entire platoons worth of enemies to start the day apparently. "You'll be fine, besides I really couldn't find a good spot to land until they were cleared out." Lirril replies, giving Vanir a pat on the shoulder, Talia just nods at me.

 _ **Mordred Pendragon**_

I pulled Caliburn out of the chest of one of the knights of the round who had led a party of his men to try and keep us from advancing past our insertion point, Iota, Percival, and Malacci had just finished off the grunts as well. "So which one was it?" Malacci asks me as we leave the corpses behind and head to where Father kept all his Grimm, releasing those would cause a fair deal of reinforcements to be held up for a while, though based on the alarms currently blaring I figured that LVTN had already begun their attack.

"I think it was Lamorak, hard to tell since he was never one to wear custom gear." I replied, stopping at a bulkhead that was currently sealed off. "I got this, keep me covered." Malacci said while taking a knee and begining to hack the holographic panel. "Could have just taken the helmet off his head to check you know." Iota says, her blade already drawn and ready to cut down any reinforcements, the runes glowing and a strange warping effect playing around the blade.

"Three of the elites down in one day, Uther must be pissed off at this point." Percival said, the three of us were getting bored waiting for Malacci to hack the door at this point and resorting to small talk. "I doubt that, Father is more than likely confident that once we do finally reach him Lucas will be more than enough to kill us all, if not then he will fight." I reply, my face showing no emotion, though my father never seemed to pick up a blade he was in no way weak. In fact the one time I saw him fight the opponent was killed quickly.

"Doors opening." Malacci said, drawing our attention back to the mission and away from the possibility of Uther actually wielding _Caladbolg_ in battle once more. "Great, more knights, hope I have enough ammo." Malacci says as the door opens and a large group of knights wait on the other side, weapons at the ready. "Malacci handle the ones with rifles, Percival, Iota, let's show them the true meaning of fear." I say, already moving forward to engage the first knight with enough bravery to try and fight me.

The knight lasted a short while while his allies fall to Iota, despite the blade being longer than her she still fights with grace, swinging quickly and cutting deep, her foes stand only for a moment before falling to the ground, a large gash starting at their shoulder and ending near their groin. Percival meanwhile crushes the armor of his foes with his mace, clearing out large swaths of foes, my own style of fighting is more or less based around tight, efficient movements that waste little movement. As my foe found out before I took a leg and then drove _Caliburn_ through his throat.

"Duck!" Malacci shout at us over the sounds of blades clattering against armor and the flash of our Auras, his pistol booms several times, a moment later I hear several bodies hit the ground, all of them gurgling from the bullets in their throats. I turn my attention back to the knights who yet remain and swing Caliburn, flinging blood across the floor and on their pristine armor, staining it red. "Fight against me and die, fight for me and you may see another dawn." I say impassively, making it clear that they will die if they try and fight back, though the slaughter of their squad most likely drove that point home. "Go to hell." One of them says, a moment later his head is gone, Malacci quickly dispatched him. The others only share a glance before nodding and kneeling.

"Smart men." Iota says, I look over at her and see that like Vanir she always ends up covered in blood. "Indeed, secure the hangar behind me and make sure that it is ready to allow more bullheads to land." I say, the knights nodd and head the way we came, I check the timer on my HUD and see that we still have time to complete our part of the task before Ares begins his own attack, this time from the outside with the dreadnought that we captured previously. "We still need to complete our own task, let's move." I say, heading down the hall, stepping over the remains of the knights who didn't have a chance to surrender.

 _ **Mithril Fullbuster**_

I could hear the sounds of combat from the vents of the ship as well as the communication channel Nexus had managed to hack into, rather than have to fight off wave after wave of knights we had so far managed to use it to sneak around and reach our target in a decent amount of time. However we had a bigger problem than a few squads of knights, in the form of a knight who was much more skilled than his subordinates.

"I must give you children credit, most fall to my glaive within a few moments." He said, the four of us were already feeling the strain of fighting him however. "Rennic, you're with me. Torque, make sure Nexus reaches the systems control console, we need to disable this things weapons." I say under my breath, fully away that the knight can hear it, his fluid movements and the hissing at times gave away the fact that he is a faunus. "Got it." The three say to me, I wanted Rennic with me because of his skill at fighting with his blades.

"Such bravery, what are your names?" The knight asks us, Rennic and I share a confused look before deciding to give him and answer. "Mithril Fullbuster." I say, already resuming the stance I used when fighting. "Rennic." Rennic says, not bothering to use his last name. "Very well, know this Mithril and Rennic, you will die at the hands of Sir Pelleas." The knight says, "Oh shit." I think before having to block a strike from Pelleas, barely managing to force his glaive away from me and jumping backward, Rennich ad already moved in to attack him, swinging his blades in a flurry of steel and small explosions of Dust. "Now!" He yells at me, I rush forward and thrust Typhoon at his stomach only to miss as he quickly jumped back, swinging the end of his glaive at Rennic and clipping his shoulder.

"Not bad." Pelleas says, somewhat amused at our attempt at catching him off guard. "Damn." Rennic says through clenched teeth as he holds his shoulder and notices a bit of blood. " There has to be a way to hit him." I say, my eyes turning white for a moment as I try and see if his armor has any weak points we could exploit, the problem with that however is he always keeps us from getting close enough land a hit. "Come then children, meet your ends." Pelleas shouts at us, already entering a stance.

This time I charge at the knight, ducking under his glaive after he tries to take my head off with a swing, I swing Typhoon upwards and manage to land a blow, the blade being turned at the last moment by his green aura, I follow up with a flurry of blows as I swing Typhoon rapidly, making sure that both blades are able to hit, after a few second Pelleas blocks on of my strikes and swings his glaive upwards, sending me through the air to hit my head against the metal wall, I look up and see Rennic fighting him, barely weathering his relentless assault. I try to stand but only vomit as I see stars flash around my vision. "Torque!" I shout, knowing the quiet man can hear me even over the small explosions of Mangna and Carta's blades releashing Dust and Rennic causing them to explode. "Go Reaper." I say before passing out, only being dimly aware and the sound of Kronus seeming to wail and feel a chill creep through the air.

 _ **Rennic Arcadius**_

I jump back from the knight, panting, Mithril must have been desperate if she wanted him to use his semblance. "What does she mean?" Pelleas asks me, for once that smug look on his face replaced by confusion. "Oh you'll see." I say, a shiteating grin spreading across my own as I hear the sound of Torque approaching, Kronus wailing as the blade slices even the air and the air around us slowly start to grow cold. "What is this?" Pelleas asks as he notices the change in temperature. "Get ready to die old man. The Reaper is here." I say, replacing the fire Dust in my swords with ice.

Shortly after I say that a shadow moves across the floor and Kronus materializes from it, almost cutting the knight in two shortly after he avoid death Torque rising from the same shadow, his eyes glowing purple and the same shadows he arrived from flowing off of him. Dramatic fucker. "Who is my target." Torque asks, his voice making a hollow echo. "Same guy you almost wasted there buddy." I reply, standing up and tapping both my blades against my shin guards. "Very well, I will send his soul screaming to hell." Torque replies, once again making me annoyed with how poetic he gets when he actually talks, of course when he gets like this he's an absolute killing machine.

"I'll back you up." I say, he only nods as we both rush forward to meet Pelleas in combat, the man can no longer withstand the assault by simply avoiding our attacks, between my limiting his movement with walls of ice and Torque swinging Kronus at high speeds that seemed to mimic another person I knew who fought with a scythe, he was forced to meet us in combat.

"W-what is this?! Pelleas shouts as Torque finally manages to stop him in his tracks by using the shadow he controls to bind his limbs, I manage to freeze the hand holding his glaive. "This is what happens when we let Torque go all out, man's a bloody demon when he does. In fact he's part of the reason that Bors died a couple of months ago." I say, my own confidence back after beating the hell out of this guy. "Take his head Reaper." I say, nothing for once that the knight is afraid, Torque only nods before raising _Kronus_ and swinging it, cleanly decapitating Pelleas.

"Good job." I say, the shadows seem to retract back into Torques body and his eyes return to their normal color, he only nods at me before returning to Nexus, I head over to Mithril, who was propped up against the wall. "Is it over?" She groans after I shake her and snap my fingers in hers ears a few times. "Yeah, bastard won't be getting up anytime soon, good thing you told Torque to use his semblance." I reply, already sitting down next to her and feeling my muscles start to ache from the fight.

"Weapons are down and it seems like Mordred has been busy getting us some backup from knights who want to live, Ares should begin his attack shortly." Nexus says as he and Torque join us, he notes our current state and pulls out _Kyofu_ , turning it into the form that he uses to amplify his own semblance. "Initiating Harmonics Sequence one." He says before playing a short tune that leaves my body feeling like I just woke up from a good night's sleep. Minus the pretty thing I brought to bed with me.

"So now what?" I ask Mithril after she cracks her neck and picks up her weapon. "We wait for the others to say something." She replies, I sigh before taking up a position next to a door, we would have to hold this place down for a while.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I released the charge I had been building up in the Hades down the hall towards the Knights trying to keep us pinned down and heard several screams as the flesh was more than likely ripped away from their bones. Normally I wouldn't hear those since I usually used it to take down Bullheads but I had also forgotten what it was like to fight inside an airship. "Clear!" Niren shouted, he and Talia had been dealing with the Knights who had tried to flank us while Lirril and I dealt with the one blocking our advance to a lift that could take us down to engineering. "Clear!" Lirril replied once we were both certain that there weren't any left.

"This is getting to be an annoying fight." Niren says as we enter the lift and enter the level we need, the lift moved with a jerk as it began its descent into the bowels of the massive ship. I looked at my HUD and saw the location of the other teams. "Looks like MNTR reached their objective already." I say, not surprised since we had given them the easy job. "Good, which means that the attack can begin once we make sure this beast is unable to move or protect itself." Lirril said while checking her weapons to make sure she had enough ammo left. I took a deep breath and let it out after a few seconds, trying to keep myself from getting too excited about the coming fighting as the lift jerked to a halt and the doors opened to a eerily quiet hall.

"Well this just screams trap." I say as I take a step out of the lift, expecting some kind of electric fence or someone to roll a grenade down the hall at us. "Thats because it isn't, pupil." Lucas said from seemingly nowhere, probably using the ships intercoms to talk to us. "Fuck me sideways." I say, closing my eyes and letting out another deep breath. "Great." Niren said quietly as we began to walk down the hall, Lucas talking the whole time.

"You will find me in the engine core Vanir, it's time we finished our duel." Lucas said as we reached the door leading into the engine core. "You aren't considering actually taking that monster on are you?" Lirril asked me as we all stood outside, her face already telling me what she thought of the idea.

"Yeah, he can't use his Semblance while in there, I think he actually wants to try and fight fairly." I replied, frowning beneath my helmet and moving my jaw as I considered my own chances of winning in a fight without Lucas using his Semblance." If Vanir can keep him distracted then we can deal with the core and complete our objective, it's simple really." Niren said from behind us. Lirril only bit her lip and turned around before responding. "Fine, just try not to die, Mithril won't forgive me if I let you die." She said, I could only nod before giving her a hug. "Been a good three years with you guys, figured I say that if I end up biting it." I said, leaving my team stunned, except for Niren, he always could read what I felt and thought. "Uh.. right, likewise, let's go." Lirril said, her face was red from embarrassment.

The door opened and the four of us walked inside the large room that for years had been dedicated to providing power to the behemoth of a ship we stood in. at it's center was the core itself, and a large ring shaped platform surrounding it, and standing at the base of the stair leading up to it was Lucas, his armor looking worn down yet still standing as a testament to how long he had worn it without needing to replace it, unlike me since even the gear I have is fairly new. More importantly was the great sword he had in front of him, Moonlight was plunged into the deck below him and his hands rested on the pommel, the blade itself seemed to pulse with energy. "I bid you welcome and congratulate you on making it this far Vanir." Lucas said as we reached about halfway to the core.

"The other Knights of the Round where hardly a challenge." I replied, keeping my hands on Gram and waiting for him to make his move. Lucas only nodded while Niren and the other fanned out, preparing to give me some backup if I needed it but focusing more on find a place to plant some bombs. "I am aware of you're duel with them, and I am also aware of the death of at least one more at the hands of the Android and his allies." Lucas replied calmly, his hands never moving and his eyes never averting their gaze. "You planning on standing there or are we gonna fight?' I asked, finally deciding to get thing moving.

"In due time boy." Lucas replied, getting a growl from me in response as I realized that he was going to keep talking until I went in for an attack, just as he always had. "I want to know what you plan on gaining by destroying everything Uther has built, is that a difficult thing to ask?" Lucas asked me, already settling into his old way of teaching, and getting some kicks out of it too. "Freedom from this part of my past, I've got bigger fish to fry honestly and Uther and his vendetta are in the way." I replied, letting him have his way, not like I could surprise him anyway.

"So you intend to fight Salem?" Lucas said, I let out a small gasp "Don't be surprised, I've known of her for some time now, as has Uther. The fiend came to us demanding we submit to her will and aid in destroying her foes, Uther refused and destroyed the Grimm she sent to kill us." He continued, making me smile under my helmet and feel some relief that he didn't abandon his senses like so many others had. "Of course, even if you say the whole "It's pointless." Crap i'm still going to fight to the bitter end." I replied, taking up a low stance with Gram, keeping the blade pointed upwards and leaving a gap between it and myself, Lucas simply pulled his sword out of the deck.

"Good, then I believe it's time we had our final lesson." Lucas replied, keeping Moonlight in a form of the Schlussel stance. "Keeping it simple I see." I say as we begin to advance, Lucas enjoyed keeping his bladework simple, yet neat until the time came to throw his opponent off guard with a flurry as strikes that did not come from any stance beyond simply keeping his blade close to block strikes. "Of course, you however still prefer to fight with ferocity rather than discipline." Lucas replied as we began to cross blades, I tried to thrust and he parried, turning the blade from his stomach and to the ground before hitting me with the back of his gauntlet and then kicking me away. "Perhaps if you showed some caution in your strike then you would still have both arms boy." Lucas said after I barely blocked an overhead swing from him, we both struggled to force the others blade away as they became locked. "Your Semblance is uncontrollable, you can't even stay focused long enough to truly pour all your effort into a fight can you? Trying to keep that beast at bay." Lucas continued to chew me out as we fought, both of us seeming to miss attacks as we tried countering a particular stance or attack that was broadcast easily.

At some point I became aware of my Aura finally deciding to give out and the fatigue from combat setting in, not even my Semblance could last forever, and with the I began noticing more cuts building up on the parts of my body that had less armor, of course I noticed that Lucas was beginning to amass some wounds as well, "Didn't think anyone could harm your Aura old man." I said after we finally broke off from a lengthy engagement. Lucas let out a deep breath as he got his own breathing under control. "I'm not immortal." Lucas said as we both moved to continue our fight, Niren and the others had managed to climb onto the core by now, Lucas most likely noticed them as well. "You seem much more at peace now than the last time we fought." Lucas said as I managed to land a hit on his shoulder, never even flinching from the pain. The two of us began to change how we fought at this point, Lucas including more random strikes and I was starting to use some of the defensive stances to try and keep him from gaining the upper hand. Finally we both struck each other's helmets and I felt blood pouring over my eyes, Lucas seemed to be dealing with the same thing as we both ripped off our helmets, now worthless for fighting due to the large cuts on them.

"Impressive." Lucas said as I straightened up and wiped the blood out of my eyes. "Of all the times to be impressed you choose now?" I asked, unable to shout due to being out of breath. "Of course, you rarely landed a hit on me during the time I spent teaching you." Lucas replied, finally earning a roar from me as I rushed him, not caring if I could keep up a sustained attack on him or not. "If you hadn't been giving that bastard Arthur all the damn praise and special training I could have impressed you more old man!" I shouted, not even caring if the others saw me lose it on him. "Arthur was the more skilled warrior between the two of you." Lucas replied calmly, as though that fixed anything as we both jumped back and put a few feet between us.

"This is the first time I've been pushed so far, Not using my semblance to end a fight is refreshing." Lucas said, I could see him smile at the fact as he entered another stance, I didn't respond with words, only entering a stance meant for stabbing, this fight had gone on long enough. "Good. Answer me only with the sword and the sparks they create through clashing." Lucas said as we began to circle each other. I was aware of Niren leveling Gungnirs barrel at Lucas, intending to help me fight him. "Niren." I growled at the person I have always called brother, he had no reason to interfere with this fight. "Fine then you stubborn bastard." He replied, I heard some noise of protest from Lirril and Talis before Niren told them to stop.

"You have good friends boy, much like Uther and I did back during the early days of the knights, I wonder what they would think of us now?" Lucas said, keeping his stance and keeping his eyes focused on me. "At a guess? That you made a mistake in kidnapping children to turn into a bunch of freaks." I replied, moving forward a couple of inches before lunging forward, Lucas moving to do the same. This clash was different, mainly because neither blade connected, instead I felt Moonlight slide into my stomach while Gram also punched through Lucas' remaining Aura and go right through his stomach. "Vanir!" niren and the others shouted almost in unison.

"Not bad…..not bad at all. You truly are the best student I have ever trained Vanir." Lucas said, blood coming out of his mouth as I pulled Gram out of his stomach., he couldn't even pulled Moonlight out of my stomach. "Of course you choose to say that old man." I replied, trying to keep him in focus from the pain of a sword in my stomach but also from tears, before me stood the man who filled in the role of a father, sure a father who had always been displeased with my efforts but still. A father figure. "I have a request of you Vanir….. Stop Uther from this mad path we've all embarked on. Please." Lucas said before getting on his knees, unable to stand.

"Of course we will." I reply as I see him close his eyes and let out one last breath, and sinking to my knees and seeing nothing but black and feeling at least three sets of hands reaching out to grab me.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Mordred Pendragon**_

After what felt like an eternity of fighting we finally reached the biology deck's security center, this part of the plan was insane due to the fact that Uther kept at least two or three rare species of Grimm here. "Malacci, get on the console and release the Grimm in all blocks. Time to start the party." I said as Malacci already brushed past me and began to hack into the security system. I looked out the window at the large deck devoted to trying to keep Grimm from simply dying like they have in the past by creating artificial biomes. "Keep an eye on the doors yeah?" Malacci said, it would take some time to get past the layers of security, I nodded to Iota and Percival and they went to one of the other doors, taking up a position on either side of it, I kept an eye on the door.

"How long will it take you to open some damn doors?" Iota asked Malacci, breaking the silence, it was quite enough that I could hear the sounds of conflict from outside the ship, faint booms as cannons fired and ships went down in flames. "Wonder who started that?" Percival asked, not really to anyone of us in particular. I kept my eyes on my door while patching into the fleets communications. " _Bring down those frigates before they have a chance to punch through our lines!_ " I heard Aries shouting over the channel. I kept listening in for a better idea of the situation while Malacci worked, I was already tapped into the communications for the ship and was aware of combat on several decks, as well as auto defenses being shut down after a large fight in the control room. Part of our plan was successful. I was starting to get worried about LVTN not checking in for a while when Niren finally called in.

" _Mordred, the engine core is rigged with explosives and Lucas is down, we need to get Vanir to a medlab, can you get us a route?_ " He said, I could hear some gunfire as well as the sound of men screaming. "What the hell happened to Vanir?" I asked, shocked that he would actually be that wounded, yet then again he was fighting Lucas. " _Damn fool took on Lucas by himself, got stabbed in the gut and is currently bleeding out on me, now where's a fucking medlab?!_ " Niren shouted before I heard him grunt as well as the sound of his weapon firing. "Malacci, get him a map to the nearest medlab now." I said, keeping myself calm and knowing full well what Niren was going to use. "On it." Malacci said, it only took him a moment before I saw a map show up on my HUD. "Thanks, he should be back up in a little bit if we can get him there." Niren said, the fight had stopped on his end, given the lack of screaming and gunfire.

"Almost through…...wait, oh shit." Malacci said, drawing my attention back to him as the console began to spark and he covered his face, even though he had his helmet on. " _You didn't think I would just let you release the Grimm did you Mordred?_ " Uther said, his voice coming from everywhere. "Isn't that what the firewall is for?" I asked, my voice struggling to stay level as I kept my emotions in check so he wouldn't have an easier time playing with them. " _That is its intended purpose yes, however I find a more direct approach is now required Mordred, especially since that mongrel killed Lucas, prepare yourself boy._ " Uther said, his voice was calm as usual but I could feel the black rage he was experiencing. The shared sense of dread in the room after his statement was enough to agitate the Grimm. "Did he just say what I think he just said?" Iota asked, only earning a nod from me.

"What's the plan?" Percival asked, keeping both hands on his hammer. "We scrap letting these bastards out and move on to the next phase, with or without LVTN." I replied. "Got hostiles at the door." Iota said, Percival and I nodded and took up positions on both sides of the entrance she had been watching. Malacci took cover behind one of the consoles.

 _ **Mithril Fullbuster**_

My heart was racing as the four of us rushed down the hall, heading to the nearest lift and hoping that Vanir wasn't dead, I had heard Niren over the comm channel and felt my heart leap into my throat. "Mithril! Mithril stop!" Nexus shouted, grabbing me by the arm. "Why? We need to get to Niren and the others." I replied, already removing his hand starting to walk again.

"Yeah, we need to find them but Malacci is reporting a large number of knights moving on them, and from the sound of things the battle outside is starting up again." Nexus said, I stopped again and listened, the sound of cannons being fired and the dull thud of explosions was the first thing I had heard. "What do you want me to do?" I asked, wrapping my arms around myself and feeling the ache in my muscles start to settling in.

"Contact Niren, or Lirril, see if they reached the medbay Mordred gave them directions to, seems like the knights are too busy to come at us for now." Nexus said, looking around the entire time, Torque and Rennic were keeping an eye on our flank. "Yeah, I'll do that." I replied, already trying to get a hold of Niren. "Niren, what's Vanirs condition?" I asked, there was silence for a while before I heard the sounds of gunfire and a door closing, followed by something being moved. " _Mithril, it's Lirril what do you need?_ " Lirril asked over the radio, she was panting and I heard Niren shouting as there was a loud thud in the background.

"What happened to Vanir?" I asked, feeling worried again after hearing the noise in the background. " _The idiot went and fought his mentor while we set the charges on the ships core, he...he let him stab him through the stomach to get close enough to kill him_." Lirril replied, Niren must have moved Vanir from wherever he had him since I could hear him grunting. "His aura can't heal that." I said, my legs feeling weak at the fact. " _Just try and get here, Nirens got a plan to help him out_." Lirril said before the radio began to crackle and I could only hear her cursing.

"Lets go." I said, quickly heading off to the lift again. Nexus and the others in tow. "Well, they sound like they could use some help." Rennic said, trying to break the tension. "Shut up Rennic." Torque replied as we finally reached a lift, I was surprised at the lack of knights in these hall, might have had something to do with Torques display back in the weapons control room.

"Lirril, what's your status?" I asked, waiting for someone to respond. "Lirril and Niren are holding the door, if you'd like to get here to break the little siege going on outside that'd be great." Talia said after a few seconds, I could hear the sound of gunfire as well as screaming. "How many are we looking at?" I asked her. "Shit, I dunno thirty maybe?" Talia replied. "Make that twenty." Niren said after I felt the lift shudder, the door opened and we saw several knights dragging bodies back into the hall ahead. "Wow, right at their flanks, what are the odd?" Nexus said as a knight finally noticed us.

"Take 'em." I said, already sprinting ahead to keep the one who spotted us from alerting the others, Nexus was right behind me. "I hate these fucking halls!" Rennic shouted as he jumped over me and buried his blades into the chest of a large knight, My own blade was stuck in the torso of the knight who spotted us and Nexus, was wrestling others to the ground. "Torque! Go take out the bastards keeping Niren and Lirril pinned!" I shouted, finally freeing my weapon from the knight and barely deflecting a sword aimed at my face. "On it boss." Torque replied, already moving to slaughter his way through the hall.

"Mithril, we got more of them." Nexus said after crushing a knights torso with _Kyofu_. "Then deal with them!" I shouted back, pushing two more blades away and spinning my weapon, cutting one of the two attacking me across the chest, Rennic stabbed the other one in the back with both swords and letting her fall to the ground. "Not too bad." Rennic said, his smile looking psychotic with the blood on it.

"Fall back to the medbay!" I shouted at Nexus, who had just finished turning a few of the reinforcements into red paste. He looked back and nodded at me, Rennic and I picked up a couple of the rifles that had been left on the ground by knights who were unfortunate enough to be caught between Niren, Lirril, and Torque. "Get in here you daft bastards!" Niren shouted at the three of us before we vaulted over the table they had set in front of the blown out door as a barricade. "Take aim." Niren said as I gave Nexus and Talia rifles, Torque was leaning against the wall. "Fire!" He shouted as the knights decided to rush down the hall at us.

"Giving up on caution I see." Lirril said as the knights fell to a hail of bullets, I felt sick to my stomach as I experienced the ease Niren must feel when fighting, he seemed to be completely calm however, soon enough the knights stopped coming and I had run out of ammo. "Seems like all of them." Niren said after we waited for a few minutes. "Nexus, help me move another table so we can keep the door covered a little longer." Rennic said, Nexus nodded and I went over to Torque, wanting to look at his wounds. "I'm fine, Niren said the wounds just need some bandages and cleaning." Torque said, seeing my concern for him and knowing that I was also worried about Vanir.

"Mithril, get over here." Niren said to me, he was standing with Lirril and Talia next to a large tank containing some strange liquid, and Vanir. "What the hell is this?" I asked quietly. Lirril put a hand on my shoulder "Niren didn't get specific, he only said that it could help Vanir heal the worst wound before he bled out on us." Lirril said, letting me get a good look at Vanir, there was a large scar on his stomach that looked like it had already gone through several months of healing. "Is he going to be ok?" I asked, feeling some tears well up in my eyes.

"He should be fine, aside from pain caused by the scar, on top of that he's never been stabbed by a sword the same size as his own." Niren said, finally taking a moment to talk to me, his eyes looked like he had lost some sleep. "That's' better than him dying at least." Nexus said, he had finished helping Rennic by now. "So how long till he decides to grace us with his violent personality again?" Talia asked, already being her usual cheerful self.

"I'm giving him about thirty minutes until he either wakes up and decides to try and break the glass, or his wound is healed up enough to let him out. Either option is fine really." Niren replied, leaning against a table covered in blood and medical equipment, as well as Vanir's gear. I let out a breath I had been holding in before another question came to mind. "How long can the others keep fighting though? Outside I mean." Niren put on his usual "I'm thinking" face before answering me. "They should be able to hold out for as long as we need, Aries may be reckless in a fight but he knows his own fair share of unorthodox and effective strategies." He only really shrugged at me, "You should get some rest before more knights show up." Niren continued I nodded and sat down next to the tank that Vanir was in, letting my eyes close for a short while.

 _ **Niren Argent**_

I took another look at Vanir's vitals, the computer was showing that he was healing fairly well considering the fact that he no longer had the machine that helped to expedite the healing process, a true shame given how often the fool went and broke his bones or got himself stabbed. " _Of course we would be on our way to fight Uther and whoever is left from his inner circle at this point had he not decided to take on Lucas by himself._ " I thought to myself, taking my eyes off the computer and watching the other, Nexus was standing guard at one of the doors with Rennic and Torque while Talia and Lirril took some time to rest as well, like Mithril who had fallen asleep at the base of the tank. I decided to kill some time and check on my own equipment and supply of ammunition, something that wouldn't take too long but would at least give me something to do beyond standing about like an idiot.

After a few minutes my ear was filled with the familiar crackle of someone trying to contact me. "Niren, how long until you're done?" Mordred asked after a few seconds. I looked at the time I had set on my HUD, it had been about fifteen minutes. "Can you hold for fifteen minutes or is Uther himself coming to kill you?" I asked, intending for it to be a joke. "He's on his way." Mordred replied, his voice dry and in no way amused. "Well shit, I'll get him out, but I can't guarantee that he's going to be of much use with a giant scar across his stomach." I replied, already standing up and feeling the ache of every muscle in my body. "Sending you my coordinates, feel free to steal a Bullhead and give me some fire support." Mordred said as I began to get Vanir out of the tank, lightly kicking Mithril to wake her up, by now the others had noticed what I was doing and got themselves ready, mostly just Nexus and Rennic getting on both sides of the tank in case they had to catch Vanir.

"You may want to stand back." I said as the fluids began to drain from the tank and Vanir's metal fist crashed against it and several alarms went off in unison as his vitals began to spike. "Does he always have to break something?" Lirril asked as we all stood back a way, aside from Nexus and Rennic of course, the two of them would still have to make sure he didn't fall on his face or break his neck. "You tell me, you've lived with the both of us for three years now." I said, feeling a little excited to get back into the fight. "I'm gonna gut whoever put me in this fucking tank like a goddamned fish!" Vanir shouted after ripping off the oxygen mask and hitting the tank again, the cracks getting larger as he did so. "Well at least he seems ready to fight." Nexus said, Rennic nodded his own agreement.

 _ **Mordred Pendragon**_

I ducked behind the downed bullhead to avoid the gunfire from a few bullheads that had brought their engagement with each other to the section of hull we had been fighting across for the last half hour. "Malacci, three hostiles on your left!" Iota shouted as she leaned out of her own cover and fired off a few shots from the rifle she picked up, trying to keep a small group of knights pinned down. "Got it, boss move up when I take them down." Malacci replied, I nodded and knew that Percival would back me up. A moment later Malacci stood up and fired his pistol several times, Percival and I ran out from our own cover with our weapons drawn and advanced on the other knights trying to keep us from advancing to the bridge. "If father wanted to keep us away so badly why bother telling us to reach him?" I thought to myself as I swung my blade, keeping the screams of pain from men I had most likely fought alongside in the past from bothering me too much.

"Clear." Percival said after there were no more knights keeping us from advancing, beyond the occasional Bullhead trying to get in close for a strafing run. Shields could keep out energy weapons but conventional rounds seemed to work just fine. "Ok, all we have to do now is get to the bridge and hope the others can get here in time, you know, before Uther kills the four of us." Iota said, earning a sigh from Malacci as I took a moment to look at the chaos around us, the fight was no longer contained between the fleets trading blows from afar with smaller ships acting as fighters or boarding ships, it had turned into the chaos only described in the history books, airships performing broadsides while the smaller ships had dogfights in between those, I also noticed that a few droplets of rain had begun to fall on the outer hull of the ship. "If that's not an omen then I'm crazy." I thought to myself as I turned my attention to the next group of knights who decided to stand in my way.

"So...you actually made it, and here I thought one of the old men would have done you in." A knight wearing incredibly gaudy armor stated, already showing the he was the officer and most likely incredibly arrogant. "Who the hell are you?" Malacci asked before any of us had to chance to answer, I smirked at the reaction given by this fool, he took a moment to posture before speaking. "I am the knight of the round known as Lancelot! You should know this worm." I had to keep myself from laughing as I stepped in front of the rest of my group. "Funny, I didn't think my father would ever allow someone as…...flamboyant as you to be a knight of the round, of course I doubt who could fill the shoes left by the previous Lancelot, especially since he's still alive, and he just killed Darklight." I said, making sure the grunts in his group heard what I just said.

Lancelot took a step back at the news and his men took a moment to look at each other, most likely aware of Lucas' fame for never losing a battle. "Those of you who don't want to die at my hands or those of the Black Wolf should consider standing down or take a moment to consider switching sides and dealing with this piece of garbage who tries to act as though he has any merit to his post." I said, taking advantage of his confusion as well as his mens and any part of fathers fleet that could hear the very open broadcast. "Uther gave me this post in recognition of my skills in combat!" Lancelot shouted, enraged by the insult. "You got your post by being one of the few officers left after my defection and the constant loses over the years to the Maleficar." I said, taking note of the grunts behind him turning their rifles from us to his back. "HOW DARE YO-" Lancelot shouted before being shot in the back by his own squad. "Damn." Percival said as his men saluted me and fell in line behind us.

After the death of the last of Uther's officers I found it simple to walk across the deck of the island sized ship to the combat deck were the bastard was most likely waiting for us. I wasn't prepared for what was waiting for us at the last stretch from where we came out at and the entrance to the bridge. "Well shit." Malacci said as he saw the sizable force of knights and their support equipment. "Great, just great." Percival said as we saw that not only was there at least two hundred knights on foot but there was also a sizable force of walkers as well. "You didn't think that I would just let you walk into my bridge did you Mordred?" Uther said, I could see him looking out at us, his face was impassive as ever. "Of course you wouldn't you bastard." I growled, feeling my teeth grinding together in frustration.

"Your call sir." Malacci said after we spent a moment looking at the small army assembled before us. "There's no choice here, we fight or we die." I said, letting out a single breath before taking several steps forward. Blade drawn and several knights stepping in front of me to form a shield wall.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

We rushed down the hall to try and find the nearest hangar that still had some Bullheads in it,Nirens plan was at best terrible and at worst desperate : Grab some Bullhead and somehow get through the battle going on around us, reach the combat deck and try to kill Uther.

"This plan sucks Niren." Vanir said, he was holding his stomach as though he was still in pain, despite his protests to being just fine.

"Well it's not like we can take the time to fight our way up there, too many knights between us and Uther, Besides he's probably sealed most of the decks off at this point as well." Niren explained for the tenth time, just about everyone save for myself had some issue with the very straightforward plan he had come up with.

"Focus Vanir, we need to end the fight before our fleet gets wrecked." I said, earning a chuckle from Talia and a grin on Vanir's face.

We finally reached a hangar that still had some Bullheads in it, as well as the knights who had been resupplying them. " _Tough luck for them._ " I thought to myself, already seeing Vanir draw his sword and Niren taking aim.

"Take them down!" I shouted, already firing Chirada and Suprana at the nearest knights, Vanir jumped down from the stairs we stood on and began to clear out enemies with wide swings of his blade, sending limbs and bodies flying in every direction.

"Mithril, secure those Bullheads, fast as you please!" I said while taking cover from gunfire aimed at me behind a piece of armor plating.

"Got it, Rennic be a dear and give us some smoke!" Mithril shouted as Rennic pulled a pin from a smoke bomb and the four of them rushed from their cover, soon the hangar was filled with grey smoke and the sounds of any knight in the advance of MNTR being cut down, with LVTN moving up behind them, two of us shooting while the other two dealt with anyone in front.

"Well that was easy." Talia said as we boarded the Bullhead that Mithril had left for us. There were a few bodies in the troop bay that we cleared out quickly, Talia and Niren stayed in the troop bay while Vanir took up the gunners seat in the cockpit with me.

I quickly began flipping switches while Vanir got himself ready with the nose gun. "Been a while since I used one of these so I may be a poor shot." He said to me, I could tell he was grinning like he always did when he was in too much pain even for him to handle.

"Try not to overdo it okay? I'd bring you back to life just to kill you again if you did." I said with a sigh, the Bullhead was ready to go, we just needed the others to take off. Then we could go for the home stretch and hopefully victory.

"Yeah, I'll try and be careful, this wound ain't doing me much good though." Vanir replied, his voice lacking that anger that had been characteristic of my team mate for these past three years, instead it was replaced with something else, concern? "I just wanna say, It's been a helluva a fun time not having to worry about whether or not I'll survive the day. Today's been hell in more ways than one so I'm glad that I at least get to be with my family." Vanir said quietly.

"Thanks, Vanir." I replied, trying to keep myself from crying, "Of all the times you had to chose to call us that….." I thought as I watched Mithril take off and leave the hangar, following close behind. "Mordred, we took some Bullheads and are on our way to the combat deck, gonna try and hit Uther with an airstrike." Vanir said over the comm channel we had with the other teams, I avoided a few dogfights as well as the fire coming from the large cannons on the ships hull.

The battle had died down and there were storm clouds rolling in, the larger ships had by now formed small pockets of fighting with Bullheads and smaller strike craft engaging each other in between. We had already engaged a few ourselves, Vanir, in spite of his earlier comment about being a poor shot had done just fine in taking down the one in front, and since we had yet to lose our engines I could only imagine that Niren was doing a good job of keeping them at bay as well.

" _Lirril, we need fire support on the starboard trench near the combat deck!_ " Malacci shouted in the comms channel, catching me by surprise as I barely avoided crashing into another Bullhead.

"Got it. Give us a moment and we can clear a path." I replied, changing course once again to avoid the debris from another Bullhead that Vanir had shot in the engines as it tried to change it's elevation. " _Bring whatever back up you can, there's a lot of these bastards. Fuck!_ " Malacci shouted as I heard the sound of something large falling in the background.

"Kind of busy here, got too many Bullheads between us and the ship!" I shouted back, diving quickly to avoid the flaming wreck of a Bullhead that had lost an engine. " _Well hurry up, I'll drop red smoke on the strike zone._ " Malacci replied, I could hear the sound of gunshots and explosions in the background. I quickly turned the Bullhead starboard, towards the trench Malacci indicated.

 _ **Mordred Pendragon**_

I blocked an overhead swing from a knight and pinned his blade to the ground while Percival came in and crushed his chest with a blow from his hammer, the man crumpled in a heap on the deck, there was little time to stand around though, as several more knights entered the area we had been forced into, a small circle of downed walkers and corpses, as well as some Bullheads that had been shot down and crashed on the hull of the ship. "This fucking sucks!" Malacci shouted from behind me as he took out three knights coming up behind the two I was dealing with already. "This isn't so bad, remember that trip to the badlands a year back?" I replied after decapitating one knight and punching the other in the face before running him through, a play from Vanirs book.

"Back then it was the White Fang and some guards from a ship, not other knights with goddamned walkers!" Malacci shouted back, loading another clip into his pistol and firing explosive Dust rounds at another walker that had decided to try and advance on us. I only grunted in agreement, this fight was far worse than the badlands if only due to the numbers against us, even though we had managed to fortify a position and the men that had joined me were keeping most knights pinned down on the other side of a no mans land we were still stuck outside of the command deck, away from father.

"Get us some air support Malacci." I said after a break in attackers, I looked at the small army still waiting to attack us, clearly father didn't intend to drown us in bodies just yet. "On it." Malacci said, jumping down from the wrecked walker he had been standing on and getting on the comms.

"Well this is just great." Iota said from behind me, she had taken a few hits during the fight and was just now starting to look troubled by them.

"You should get those checked out, make sure they won't get infected." I replied, pointing at the cuts on her legs and arms, there were more of them across her body ,though what was left of her Aura seemed to be handling the smaller ones.

"These aren't too bad, just give me a moment and a snack break." Iota replied, somehow cheerful despite the lack of progress we had made. I reached into one of the hard cases on my leg and pulled out an energy bar, it was just made of grains and fruits and held together by some peanut butter, but it sure as hell filled your belly and tossed it to her. "Thanks." Iota said after taking a bite out of it.

I took a moment to look at the battle going on around the ship, most of the larger ships had been either crippled or destroyed and there were significantly less of the smaller ships that Vanir had convinced to join our battle. "I'm going to have a lot less to work with after this, assuming I survive." I thought to myself as I watched Bullheads turn into streaks of flame and saw the massive hulks of my father's legacy fall into the churning sea below, even more Grimm had appeared, most likely to feast on the dead and dying.

"Hey boss, looks like their getting ready for another round!" Percival shouted from the top of a walker, I let out a sigh as I got ready to engage another wave. Caliburn felt heavy in my hands at this point.

"Feeling tired?" Iota asked me as we watched a group of knights advance in a tetsudo, riot shields blocking most bullets aside from a few well placed shots. They still had enough numbers to replace whoever was killed on their advance and plenty of walkers to pound us with heavy machine gun fire and grenades.

"Get a few grenades in there, and Malacci for fucks sake get us some air support!" I barked, wanting to see some pink mist at this point and the advancing force gone.

"Lirril, we need fire support on the starboard trench near the combat deck!" Malacci shouted into his helmet as several grenades rolled into the enemy and exploded, turning several groups of them into gore, before they could form back up Percival gave an order and for several seconds he had given me something to smile about as the rest of the formation was forced to deal with little to no cover from the storm of bullets tearing through them.

"Incoming walkers!" Someone shouted before we were forced to take cover from the return fire coming from three walkers that had advanced as well as the knights sitting across from us.

"Malacci!" I shouted over the thunder, looking at the small man who was still talking to Lirril. He only held a finger up before reaching for a signal flare "Bring whatever back up you can, there's a lot of these bastards. Fuck!" I heard him shout as he stood up and clambered on the wrecks we had been hiding behind and pulled the pin from the flare and tossing it as far as he could to mark the area for what I could only hope was an airstrike.

The next few minutes felt like hours until the deck rocked from several walkers collapsing in flaming heaps and several Bullheads flew over our position, firing every gun they had on the knights who had kept us occupied for a few hours, the comm channel was also flooded with howling.

"Malacci your a saint you know that right?" Iota said while clasping his shoulder before joining her Maleficar in the howling, something rest of us soon joined in on as well.

"Let's wreck these bastards!" Percival shouted before leaping over the cover we had and charging the enemy line, now in total confusion after the sudden change of pace. Iota and I shared a look before jumping over ourselves and charging the trench. "I love making some progress." I thought to myself as I ran a knight who had survived the initial attack through and kept running.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

To say that the sight of Uther's last sizable force being completely annihilated didn't make me happy would be a lie, for once a fight gave me a kill count that would make the bastard angry, and for once I didn't have to worry about getting shot at by a Bullhead, another plus.

"Lirril, get us in close so we can clear out some of the knights trying to hold down sections of trench, we can't let them dig in." I said, already thumbing the plunger to fire our nose gun at a group of knights trying just that.

"Got it, anywhere in particular?" She asked, I shook my head no as I focused fire on a walker that had managed to survive, chuckling as it fell apart. Lirril maneuvered the Bullhead to a portion of the trench that was full of knights trying to form a pocket of resistance. "This is good!" I shouted, already opening up on them before the gun finally ran out of ammo.

"Well fuck." I said quietly while standing up and unsheathing Gram. "What are you doing?!" Lirril asked, not sure what I was planning. "Out of ammo, I think it's time we gave them a fair fight." I said, already in the hold and tapping Talia on the shoulder, pointing at her axe and the open bay door. She only nodded in agreement.

"Get this thing down and find Mordred, he might need some backup." I said over the noise, glad for helmets and communications still being up. "Don't you dare you bastard!" Lirril shouted back as Talia and I jumped down into the trench.

I landed on top of a small pile of knights who had been gunned down and watched as Talia swung Oblivion in a wide arc, freezing a small section of the trench to give us some cover, she had landed on better footing than I did and had no trouble standing up.

"You ready big guy?" She asked me while offering a hand. "Hell yeah, lets mop the floor with these guys." I replied, smiling in my helmet at the idea of a good slaughter. Talia broke the small wall she made and the two of us began to clear the knights who had set up a firing line, apparently they hadn't been expecting a melee. I soon lost myself to the bloodlust and the adrenaline flowing through me, soon the corpses became numbers and I lost count of how many we had killed, by the time we had finished however I felt the pain in my arms and legs but most importantly my stomach was burning, the scar going across it was throbbing.

"Goddamn." Talia said as she swung Oblivion into the back of a knight who was trying to crawl away from us. I chuckled before running another wounded knight who was trying to aim a pistol of Talia through. "Well that was fun, been a while since we got to just go all out eh?" I said, feeling a second wind coming on at this point the only sounds of combat I could hear were getting further away from us. "Sounds like things are wrapping up." Talia said, looking around at the results of the battle, if Uther had anything left he was holding it in reserve.

"Let's find the others, Lirrils probably freaking out by now." I sighed, still feeling a little bit of pain.

After walking for a few minutes we reached a large door that would most likely lead into the command deck of the ship, Mordred had been kind enough to tell us that he found a serviceable entrance. Talia and I picked up the pace while the others stood gathered by the bulkhead and waited for us.

"Thanks for waiting." I said, punching Mordred's shoulder and nodding at Iota, who looked tired as hell, like the rest of us. "So what's the plan?" I asked after Mordred cleared his throat. I was feeling excited at the idea of killing Uther.

"Knowing my father he still has forces inside the ship, with that in mind I feel that we should split into two groups, one that will distract his forces and the other will engage and kill him." Mordred explained a rather simple plan but one that would most likely work well until Uther pulled some kind of bullshit out of his ass.

"So who's going where?" Iota asked, beating all of us to the question. Mordred took a moment to think about his response "Vanir, Iota, Niren, And I will go to fight Uther, Lirril, Talia, Malacci, Percival, and the others will hold off whatever father sends their way." Mordred said, matter of factly.

"Shit that's fine by me." I replied, feeling pleased for once today, Lucas's death still leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. "Then let's get on with it." Niren said with an annoyed tone, he seemed ready to end this too.

 _ **Uther Pendragon**_

I looked out at the ruins of my fleet and forces in the trench, for once I felt nothing short of rage at my wayward son, this was to be his inheritance and he had ruined it in but an afternoon of fighting.

"Sir, we should evacuate while we still can."One of the officers who had still survived said, no caution in his voice just a confident tone that cost him his life, I drew my blade and focused on the man behind me, and the idea of him being thrown on my blade, a moment later there was a wet thud as his corpse fell to the ground, and silence from the rest of the crew on this portion of the ship.

"Does anyone else have a suggestion?" I asked calmly, satisfied that none of them spoke, it was time to end this regardless of who won, after all the actions of Mordred had cost me everything.

"Purge the data banks and prepare to scuttle the ship, if we fail they must not gain anything beyond my death." I ordered, the bridge crew began to do as I said, and I readied myself to end my family once and for all.

 **Finally got around to finishing this chapter, as always I hope you enjoy it and hopefully it wont take me so long to finish what will be the end of this and I can move on to something a little less...big and honestly kind of ridiculous.**


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